Located some 60 kilometers away from Hanoi’s center, Ba Vi National Park, known as the capital’s lung thanks to its spectacular landscape, lush and green flora, cool climate, and rich biodiversity. The vast carpets of marigold flowers highlight the scenery every winter.
The winter comes early this year, so the marigolds grow among the green vast forest of Ba Vi National Park, giving a warm feeling to passers-by.
It is said that the marigold flower was brought to Ba Vi Mountain by the French in the 1930s. In the decades that followed, the wonderful flower was often harvested to make fodder for livestock. The marigold flower has only been replanted since 2015 for embellishing the landscape.
As visitors pass through the entrance gate and head towards the pine forest in Ba Vi National Park, they can glimpse blooming wild sunflowers that look like golden carpets blanketing all over the mountain slopes.
Ngoc Anh (from Son Tay Town, Hanoi) is among the travelers visiting Ba Vi Mountain just to admire the dazzling beauty of the wildflower blooming at the year-end. “A short visit to the place during the weekend is just enough for me. The scenery of Ba Vi Mountain in the winter morning is as beautiful and poetic as a miniature Da Lat,” she said.
The season of the marigold flower began in late November with thousands of the tiny yellow-almost-orange wildflowers in full bloom in a vast swathe of the park, stretching along the 12.5-kilometer roadside up to the top of Ba Vi Mountain.
A hill of the wildflower, which covers an area of over 10 hectares in the height of 400 meters, and 200 meters before reaching the pine forest is the highlight of this tourist attraction.
Marigolds are also known as mountain marigolds or wild sunflowers. The delightful, vigorous, tough plants grow into large shrubs or small trees up to 1.5 meters with narrow, green leaves that smell of lemon, mint, and tangerine combined.
Tree marigold has a short life span which is only one month. By mid-December, marigolds begin to fade away. Flower lovers have to patiently wait until the next winter to admire the brilliant flower season again.
Jenna Duong - Khanh Huy