From Dien Bien Phu city, following the Highway 12 to the North about 6km, visitors will see the Men village. From a distance, Men village looks like a pretty picture with back leaning against mountain, facing the vast plains. Standing out from the green of trees and the blue of sky is traditional stilts houses of the ethnic Thai Den. Besides fresh air, cool, green and clean environment, Men village has also been known by its beautiful scenery.

There are more than 110 households with 500 inhabitants who are all Thai Den (Black). They live mainly based on growing rice, crops, cattle-breeding and traditional brocade embroidery. In the recent years, villagers have been joining hands to develop community-based tourism model integrating with civilized lifestyle and cultural tradition of local community. Thanks to the clear awareness of local people in community-based tourism development, Men village has become one of attractive destinations of domestic and int'l visitors.

Besides weaving and traditional brocade embroidery, the Thai Den still preserves traditional stilt houses architecture and their own daily customs. The stilt house has two floors, in which the upper is used for daily living of host and guests and the remaining for weavers, farming utensils, timber, firewood...

Aiming to ensure tourist service quality standard, the villagers have enhanced infrastructures such as toilets, water tanks as well as built a cultural house with traditional architecture to serve local community activities.

Visiting Men village, tourists will not only have a chance to enjoy natural landscapes of the North West but also to experience local daily activities and special foods.

With above efforts, Men village has been becoming an attractive, being worthy of a typical community tourism village in the economic and cultural development of Dien Bien province.

Translated by Thanh Pham (TITC)