Dong Nai Province's Landscape: Tourist Attraction

 

From Tri An waterfall to the East Sea, Dong Nai river has created several islets, big and small. At Bien Hoa city, the river embraced a big islet called Pho islet or Nong Nai Dai Pho, with an area of 6.93 sq. km. According to the history book, in 1679, Governor Tran Thuong Xuyen led a group of migrants to the islet, reclaimed the land and built a river port. Later on with the development of roads, streets and markets, foreign merchant boats frequented the town and expanded trade. Pho islet has also developed several crafts : weaving rush mats, sericulture, pottery, bronze casting, carpentry, cane sugar. In 1776, the civil war between Tay Son and Nguyen Anh demolished the ancient town. The area has become now a rice granary of Bien Hoa. Pho islet has five pagodas and three meditation sites, 11 communal houses and three temples, with diverse and mixed faiths.

 

Tan Trieu village is famous for its special Bien Hoa grape fruit (Tan Binh commune, Vinh Cuu district). The fertile land is most suitable for several kinds of grape fruit : buoi duong, buoi thanh, buoi cam, and buoi oi. The fruit is famous nationwide and is even exported to several countries. During the season, visitors may visit Tan Trieu and pick the fruit for themselves.

 

Following Highway 1A, tourists from Ho Chi Minh City may turn left at Dong Nai bridge and arrive at Tan Van pottery village. The first kiln was built in 1878 and developed into a pottery village supplying jars to the people in Mekong downstream and fish sauce producers in Binh Thuan and Phu Quoc. Although pottery was an ancient craft, fine art ceramics came into being only when Bien Hoa Fine Art School was established in 1903, now Fine Arts College. Two French professors, Robert and Mariette Balick, made great efforts to improve the traditional craft and train skilled workers with modern technology and equipment. Bien Hoa ceramics won several awards in France, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Reunion. In 1963, Professor Le Ba Dang developed modern fine arts in ceramics. There are now almost 100 ceramic workshops in the area. In fact, Bien Hoa ceramics has been expanded as ceramics of Ho Chi Minh City, Vinh Long and other parts of Vietnam increasing the reputation of the traditional craft.

 

30 km from Bien Hoa city, Tri An waterfall is 300 metres wide with rapid flow and tree-covered embankments. While in dry season, visitors can wade across, in rainy season, the flow becomes ferocious, violently carrying away everything downstream. The waterfall is also linked with a lovely legend. One day, a prince of Le dynasty made a venture journey upstream and was captured by K’Dinh tribe. The prince was made a bodyguard of the tribal chief. After rescuing the daughter of the chief from an accident, the prince was allowed to marry her. However, a few years later, the prince became homesick and wanted to leave for his native land. The tribe’s chief built a dam across the river to prevent the prince from rowing his boat back to his homeland. However, the hopeless prince crossed the river and died at the dam. Suffering from the loss, the young wife also died and turned into a stone statue at the dam looking down the river. The rock several metres high at the riverbank is believed to be statue of the widow.

 

The area of Cat Tien national park is 74,320 hectares in Daklua commune, Tan Phu district. It is the biggest national park in Vietnam and is recognised by UNESCO as a biosphere of the world. Cat Tien was the religious town of the ancient Kingdom Phu Nam (2^nd Century A.D.) with famous Oc Eo civilization. The national park has 636 rare species of 411 branches and 192 families, 121 kinds of insects and several endangered animals such as leopards, red wolves, flying squirels, five-coloured monkeys, rhinoceros, and blue peacocks. With a wide range of flora and fauna, the national park has several tourist sites : Bau Chim, Bau Sai, Suoi Tien, Thac Troi, orchid forest, anad a thousand-year old tree. It attracts tourists as well as students and researchers. Tourists may also wander in the forests and orchards, enjoy fishing and boat ride on the river, visit Long An lake, Suoi Tre cultural centre, and Ma Da forest.