Visitors at Bo Da Temple in Viet Yen District.

The province has created its typical tourism products by taking advantage of heritages recognised by UNESCO and national historical-cultural sites, notably a system of heritages associated with the formation and development of the Truc Lam Yen Tu School of Buddhism.

Since 2011, Bac Giang has identified tourism as one of its five key socio-economic development programmes. Through a series of solutions, programmes, and projects, there are now four forms of tourism present in Bac Giang, namely cultural-spiritual tourism, ecotourism, entertainment and sports tourism, and community tourism, with cultural-spiritual tourism being the main focus.

West Yen Tu tourism brand

In the past three years, West Yen Tu tourism has become the pride of Bac Giang Province. With tangible and intangible heritages, scenic spots, natural landscapes and vestiges of temples and pagodas associated with the Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen School, Bac Giang has created unique tourism products such as the Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen School propagation route, the journey to the sacred land of West Yen Tu, West Yen Tu Spring Festival, and the Bac Giang Culture and Tourism Week.

The west side of Yen Tu covers the four districts of Son Dong, Luc Ngan, Luc Nam, and Yen Dung. According to researchers, the east side of Yen Tu (Quang Ninh Province) was where Emperor Tran Nhan Tong practised Buddhism, while West Yen Tu was where he and his disciples promoted Buddhism.

On west side of Yen Tu, there survives about 130 relic sites associated with the formation and development of the Truc Lam Zen School founded by Emperor Tran Nhan Tong in the late 13th century. The most outstanding among them is Vinh Nghiem Temple in Yen Dung District, which was built during the Tran Dynasty. It is the root temple of the Truc Lam Zen School and stores 3,050 woodblocks, which were recognised by UNESCO as a world documentary heritage for the Asia-Pacific region.

Possessing the potential for cultural-spiritual tourism and community tourism development, but it was not until 2014 that the Buddhist cultural space on the west side of Yen Tu was tapped into with adequate investment and planning, with the highlight being the West Yen Tu spiritual-ecological tourism area, covering an area of 13.8 hectares in Son Dong District, and comprising four independent temple clusters: Trinh Temple, Lower (Phat Quang) Temple, Middle Temple and Upper (Kim Quy) Temple. These temples are connected with the Bronze Temple and the statue of Emperor Tran Nhan Ton on Mount Yen Tu in Quang Ninh Province.

Along the 100-kilometre-long Buddhist propagation route of Truc Lam Zen patriarchs, starting from Bac Giang City, tourists will see a series of scenic spots and historical sites such as Am Vai Temple, Bo Da Temple, Kem Temple, Truc Lam Phuong Hoang Zen Monastery, and the Suoi Mo ecotourism area associated with the legend about the Goddess of Forest.

In 2019, a number of projects in the first stage were completed to welcome visitors and pilgrims, including the Upper Temple, the Lower Temple, a cable line between the two temples, and a central square. In addition to the Buddhist propagation route as the core product of Bac Giang’s tourism, the province has also invested in developing tourist areas in West Yen Tu.

Thanks to tourism development, the lives of local residents have improved, especially the ethnic communities in Son Dong, Luc Ngan, and Luc Nam. In 2023, Bac Giang welcomed over 2 million visitors and earned a revenue of 1,477 billion VND from tourism. In the first half of 2024, the province has already welcomed about 1.8 million visitors. Tourism is creating jobs for 2,500 people in Bac Giang.

A corner of the West Yen Tu cutural and spiritual space.

Tapping into advantages from cultural traditions

Identifying cultural-spiritual tourism and historical-cultural tourism as two of its strengths, Bac Giang has outlined a number of measures to develop tourism on the basis of a system of valuable cultural and historical sites.

According to Do Tuan Khoa, Deputy Director of the Bac Giang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Bac Giang began to take the first steps to develop tourism in the 2010s and has achieved foundational conditions for tourism development.

Over the years, Bac Giang has taken effective measures to preserve and promote the traditional cultural values and outstanding cultural-historical sites, especially tapping into the UNESCO-recognised heritages and national sites to form high-quality and characteristic cultural tourism products.

Bac Giang has rich resources for cultural tourism development. With 755 listed relic sites, including five national and special national sites (Vinh Nghiem Temple, Bo Da Temple, the site of the Xuong Giang Victory, the site of the Yen The Uprising, and the Hiep Hoa Safe Zone II), 16 national intangible cultural heritages, including five UNESCO-recognised heritages (Quan ho, Ca tru, Vinh Nghiem Temple woodblocks, the Mother Goddess religion, and Then practices ), Bac Giang is among the provinces with the highest number of cultural heritages.

The province also possesses four national treasures, namely the stone altar of the Kham Temple, the Doi Coc boxed stele from the Mac Dynasty, the woodblocks of the Bo Da Temple, and the wooden curtain door of the Tho Ha Communal House.

With the stance of conserving and promoting the cultural values of ethnic groups aligned with developing tourism sustainably, Bac Giang has tapped into its cultural values, linked heritage preservation with tourism development and local socio-economic development, and focused resources on building a number of key tourist sites with outstanding cultural heritages and scenic spots.

Many interesting tourism products have taken shape such as the ancient village of Tho Ha, the primeval forest of Khe Ro, the Nuoc Vang Stream, and Cam Son Lake. Bac Giang currently has 32 tourism agencies and 445 accommodation facilities. The province has introduced many mechanisms and policies to develop tourism and culture.

In 2023, the province approved a resolution on support policies for community tourism for the 2023-2030 period with the goal of addressing the difficulties facing this form of tourism. Regarding infrastructure, Bac Giang kicked off construction of a road linking West Yen Tu with Ha Long City in Quang Ninh Province. Once completed, the road will shorten the distance and travel time between the west and east sides of Yen Tu, thus better serving pilgrims to the sacred land of Yen Tu.

Utilising its advantages in heritages, especially the cultural heritage recognised by the government and UNESCO, is Bac Giang’s right path in tourism development. Recently the Bac Giang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has finalised the dossier to seek recognition of the group of Tien Luc relics in Lang Giang District as a special national site.

The province is also working with Quang Ninh Province and Hai Duong Province on a dossier to seek UNESCO recognition of Yen Tu-Vinh Nghiem-Con Son-Kiep Bac as a world heritage site.

With the project to restore the Buddhism propagation route of Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen Patriarchs aligned with preserving and promoting the values of Truc Lam Yen Tu Buddhist school, Bac Giang possesses plenty of room to realise the goal of welcoming 3 million visitors and generating a revenue of 3 trillion VND from tourism by 2025.