Quang Ninh - Things should Know
Founded in 1963 with the base of Hong Quang area and Hai Ninh province in the past, the name of this province is the combination of the two old provinces above. Quang Ninh has more than 500 historical and cultural heritages with a lot of traditional festivals related to many famous destinations of Vietnam like Yen Tu pagoda, Cua Ong temple, Bach Dang - historical river, Long Tien pagoda, Quan Lan communal house… This province is really a tourism center of the North Vietnam with many attractive tourism activities about culture, religion, especially festivals.
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| Nghinh Ong festival |
Besides a lot of attractive tourism destinations, Quang Ninh is known as the province with the highest coal output. It is estimated that every year, the total output coal of this city is about 100.000 billion VND with the profit of more than 10.000 billion VND. The coal economy in Quang Ninh can be said to be the economy that contributes a lot to the national GDP. With the high output and very surprised income, the coal industry here has create many benefit jobs for many people both in Ha Long and people from other part of Vietnam. Otherwise, this city is the main part that provide fuel for other industry, especially for the electricity that use heat to create electric. It is estimated that in the future, coal can be the replacement for other kinds of fuel like oil, gas…
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| Coal mining in Quang Ninh |
Knowing his strength of coal, Quang Ninh has use this kind of natural resource for many other purposes. One of the most unique one is that they use coal to make many beautiful kinds of souvenirs for tourists. Many tourists come here were really impressed by the way they make the souvenirs from coal as they are very beautiful and meaningful also. Many handicraft villages were founded in Quang Ninh to make plenty of coal products. This product is even though made from coal but it has a lot of kinds and sizes, from the very small gift like astray, small buffalo to the more complicated one like a lion, a boat or even a house.
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| Coal souvenir in Quang Ninh |
Many of this products bring the villagers here the huge income, even millions VND for one product. Coal products are now preferred by many tourists both domestic and overseas one. Tourists are not only impressed by the aesthetic of the producers but they are also really admire their creativeness that can be used to made up interesting souvenirs.
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| Easthetic handicraft from coal in Quang NInh |
As a result of having the advantages of coal, Quang Ninh people are said to be the city with highest income city in Vietnam. People in this province can do many kinds of jobs but for each job, they can earn a lot of money for themselves each year. According to some surveys recently, they average income of Quang Ninh people is about 30 million VND per year for each person, which is much higher than other cities, even Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. That can be an impressed number of a province that near the sea.
Being a province lied against the sea, Quang Ninh has impressed a lot of tourist by his seafood as they are really really delicious.
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| Quang Ninh seafood |
Visiting Ha Long, we can easily find a restaurant that serve seafood. When the time for searching for seafood is limited and it seems hard for tourists from other parts of country and the world like some mountainous area nowadays, the appearance of seafood restaurant in Quang Ninh, especially Ha Long seems to be very convenient to tourists to have chance of choosing their favorite one in this beautiful province. Coming there, they can have chances to chose various kind of seafood with reasonable price and high quality. The most important thing is that seafood in Quan Ninh are very fresh so that tourists can ensure about its quality.
Quang Ninh is also well-known for its tourism of many beautiful destinations, especially Ha Long, a city that was twice recognized as the world natural heritage by UNESCO. Located in the North – East of Vietnam, Ha Long Bay belongs to Bac Bo Bay, includes a part of Ha Long city, Cam Pha village and a part of Van Don District. This city is famous for many beautiful landscapes rock islands and a lot of attractive caves also. It is the reason why Ha Long is considered to be one of the 7 world heritages. Ha Long has the square of 434 km2 with more than 775 islands, these islands make up a tangular shape with the tops are Dau Go cave in the west, Ba Ham lake in the south and Cong Tay island in the west.
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| Beautiful Halong |
The name Ha Long has changed for many years of development. In the 1000 years under the North domination, Ha Long was known as Luc Chau, then it changed in to Luc Hai; and in Ly – Tran dynasty, it had the name Hai Dong (The Sea in the west). The name Ha Long (landing dragon) appeared in some documents of the French people when they came to dominated Vietnam. This name appeared along with many interesting legends about the Mother of Dragon and its children. The appearance of the holy animals might be considered to be the reason why the French called this Ha Long and it has still remained until today.
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| Halong Tourism |
In 1994, in the 18th meeting of UNESCO, Ha Long was recognized to be one of the most beautiful world heritages. And in 2012, this bay is once again recognized as one of the 7 new world wonders. This is a good chance for Ha Long, Quang Ninh and Vietnam to develop the tourism as well as attract more and more tourists come to visit.
Although Quang Ninh has a lot of advantages to develop, it still has some problems while trying his best to contribute to the country. Being a developed province in Vietnam, located near the border of China, Quang Ninh is said to be the city that has the greatest deal of addicted people, of course teenagers and young people take the greater percentage. Each year, many people die for that strict habit but the number of addicted people here seems to be greater each year. A lot of policies have been making to reduce that death-toll with the hope that there will be no longer addicted people in this beautiful province.
Another challenge of that province is that almost all children caught a strange disease. In their head, where the skull should be round, there are cracks inside and if it does not have cure immediately, the child will die. At the first time, when this strange disease appeared, it has killed a lot of children, especially new-born ones. For many years, people have tried to find reasons and cures for that to protect their later generations. And it was not until the 1990s when they find out the reason. Many researchers had predicted that the disease was the result of environment polluted by the coal. When they were mining the coal, the air and water are heavily polluted and that is the main reason for the disease that only appears in Quang Ninh. The cure for that disease is finally discovered. They use a kind of leaves that only appear in that province to dry, then burn it to take the smoke and by some ways, the smoke is blown to the head of the babies. After several hours, the babies’ head becomes normal. That is a very serious effect of mining the coal in Quang Ninh province.
A province with highest average income also means that the price of product in Quang Ninh is very high consequently. Many tourists come here complaint that the price of products and services are much higher than other cities and provinces in Vietnam.
With many advantages and disadvantages also, Quaang Ninh should improve himself to develop more and more to become a true center in both the North and all over Vietnam.
