Attractive Hai Duong
The blue sea
It was about 20 km from Hue to Hai Duong beach on the asphalt and concrete street. It took less than one hour to go there by car. At first, the beach had seemed to be wild. Then, it turned out to have been exploited years now. By choosing a beautiful location which was a stilt house (“nhà chồ”) on the stone, called "4-Foot Stone", we could see the whole long coastline with blue and clean water.
No one could control their emotions when seeing the blue water. We jumped down; the water was cool and shallow with no eddies. Thus, everyone swam as much as they liked; especially the children, they enjoyed swimming with their parents. Over there, groups of people relaxed on the rock after swimming; some people were engaged in looking for the most beautiful views to take photos. Everyone was happy with the wonderful beach.
To have the beach as beautiful as today, there was a hard and costly journey. In the historical flood in 1999, Hai Duong beach suffered heavy erosion, many houses were submerged and swept away. In order to stabilize local people’s lives against sea erosion, the provincial People's Committee had carried out the project of evacuating and resettling households, and investing in building stone embankments along the coastline. Since then, Hai Duong beach has no longer been subject to erosion and has become beautiful with stones standing on stones along the long coastline, attracting many visitors to come here for swimming, sightseeing and taking pictures.
Satisfactory service
Along the shore, there were dozens of stilt houses built by the local restaurants. All of them were full of guests. They often came there at around noon and left late at night, including visitors from other provinces such as Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Tri… According to the owner of Phuong Ngoc restaurant, as the food was fresh, and affordable with no extra fee for the stilt houses, most visitors ate at the beach (very few people brought along their home-prepared food). When we first came here, just to be sure, we called the owner and asked her about the price of each dish listed on the menu. We found the price to be pretty cheap (compared to other places), we ordered a lot of dishes from sentinel-crabs to squids, shrimps, grouper... Especially, there was a brand-new grilled fish called "cá doái". It was said to be served only in Hai Duong. The owner recommended it to us for VND 100,000/fish. We gave it a try, and it turned out to be very delicious.
Many business households said: "In the past, people were less aware of Hai Duong beach, they mostly went to familiar beaches like Thuan An, Phu Thuan, Canh Duong, Lang Co… But over time, as we have done business well with the motto: “The Customer is God.” We earn less interest, but sell more, and the most important thing is our seafood is always fresh. Since then, the good reputation spreads out, more and more visitors come, which helps the local people earn money and increase their income.”
To create the beautiful landscape, ensure a clean environment and business in order, Hai Duong Communal People's Committee asked the restaurant owners to voluntarily dismantle the stilt houses on stones and rearranged business households at the same time, so as to help Hai Duong beach develop in a sustainable way. Hopefully, Hai Duong will be able to attract more and more visitors, contributing to the creation of jobs for local people, contributing to the local budget and becoming a new destination for visitors when visiting Hue.
Story and photo: Trong Hoang