CHAPTER 2. THE SETTINGS
2.3. Lung Hoa B village
2.3.1. Location and the village – city connection
32 Vuong Family's Palace with an area of over 1000m2 was built during 8 years in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most building workers are local Hmong people and Hui people from Yunnan (China). In the front of the palace, there is a gate built by stone. Surrounded the palace is 2 stone walls with loopholes. The walls are about 60cm thick, 2.5 to 3m high with cherry and bamboo trees between the two walls.
The palace includes 4 transversal houses and 6 lengthwise houses - all having two floors and a total of 64 rooms. The houses were built in the style of the Qing Dynasty (China). The house walls are made of stone, with the wood base, the wooden floor, pillars and columns. The roof is made with tiles and its front roof made with tube tiles decorated with the "longevity" (Tho) character.
In main house, the horizontal lacquered board with the scripts saying "a politically stabled border area" (Bien chinh kha phong), presented by King Khai Dinh (1885-1925) to the Vuong Family in 1913 are also stored. In addition, inside the palace, there are areas of kitchen, cistern, storehouses of food, weapons…, especially a stone bathtub in goat milk of Vuong Chinh Duc. Especially, all the parts, whether made of stone or wood, are carved meticulously with designs of the dragon, phoenix, bat… which represent for prosperity and longevity of a family of high rank.4
This architecture was designated to be the National heritage in 1993 by Vietnam government and at present, has become one of the most famous touristic attractions of Dong Van Karst Plateau.
33 Viewing from the map, Lung Hoa B village is quite far from Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam (the distance is nearly 500km). In most cases, it takes passengers about eight hours to travel to Ha Giang city from Hanoi (320km) by the sleeper car at first. Although this journey was long and time-consuming, passengers still feel quite comfortable since the road is fairly smooth and flat. However, the second stage from Ha Giang city to Lung Hoa B village is different. From Ha Giang city, it is easy to get a passenger car to access Lung Hoa B village on the 4C highway which is the only road from Ha Giang city to four highland districts: Quan Ba, Yen Minh, Dong Van, and Meo Vac. The 4C highway was opened in the period of 1959-1965 and played a significant role to the development of total Dong Van Plateau area, for this reason, the road is named 'the Happiness Road'. Since the road was opened few decades ago, some stretches of this road have been downgraded, not to mention the terrain of Dong Van plateau is full of obstacles and difficult to access; as a result, travelling on this road was rather challenging for any passenger, including me. Even experienced drivers ran into little difficulties when driving on this 'road of happiness' because they must drive slowly and overcome many high slopes and rather zigzag mountainous roads (see figure 2.6 and 2.7).
(Source: https://www.google.com/maps) Figure 2.5. The location of Lung Hoa B village
34 Figure 2.6. Ma Tham Slope in the road from Yen Minh town to Pho Cao commune5
Figure 2.7. The Nine Convolutions Slope in the road from Pho Cao to Sung La commune6 Although the distance from Ha Giang city to Lung Hoa B village is only around 130 kilometers, I had to take nearly five hours to get the village. Honestly, I did not enjoy travelling on this route so much. During the fieldwork from 2016-2018, I traveled to Lung Hoa B village several times, and those all were hard and long journeys to me; however, local people have gotten accustomed to travel on this road, and from their point of view, traveling on the 'Happiness Road' nowadays is much more convenient than in the old days. In 2010, Dong Van Karst Plateau was designated as a Global Geopark by UNESCO, so Vietnam government paid attention to upgrade the infrastructure of Dong Van in order to develop tourism. Hopefully, the infrastructure of
5 Source: The image is cut from the video Ha Giang – Tham Ma Slope of Du Tu:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co71osvoXQw [online] accessed on 1st July, 2018.
6 Source: The image is cut from the video The Nine Convolutions Slope in Ha Giang of Thang Soi:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aU-h0lZDBs [online] accessed on 1st July, 2018.
Dong Van would be improved in the recent future, then trav become much easier.
Lung Hoa B is one of 11 villages of Sa Phin commune, Dong Van District, Ha Giang province7. It is noted that the villa
villages are quite far from the main road.
Figure 2.8. Lung Hoa B village
As we can see from the figure 2.10, almost all households of Lung Hoa B settle in a hollow valley that is encompassed by
which is actually much wider, consists of many
the resident area, natural landscapes such as mountains and valleys, and a geo 'Moon's surface'. This heritage is quite special that is the result of the cold and dry weather conditions of
difference in temperature between day and night, especially in su
and so on are factors that speed up the physical weathering process, causing the limestone to fracture, break down then roll or slide down slope, lowering mountain peaks, gradually
7 Sa Phin commune consists of 11 villages: Sa Phin A, Sa Phin B, Sa Phin C, Thanh Cha Tung, Lung Hoa A, Lung Hoa B, Ha Ho, San Si Tung, Lung Thau.
be improved in the recent future, then traveling on the Happiness Road would
Lung Hoa B is one of 11 villages of Sa Phin commune, Dong Van District, Ha Giang the village is located right next the 4C highway while some other villages are quite far from the main road.
. Lung Hoa B village (Source: Nguyen Ngoc Minh 2016)
As we can see from the figure 2.10, almost all households of Lung Hoa B settle in a hollow valley that is encompassed by mountains. However, the territory of Lung Hoa B village
consists of many corn fields spreading out on mountainsides near the resident area, natural landscapes such as mountains and valleys, and a
geo-This heritage is quite special that is the result of the rock desertification. the cold and dry weather conditions of the karst plateau with low rain fall, high evaporation, the big difference in temperature between day and night, especially in summer, frost and ice in winter, and so on are factors that speed up the physical weathering process, causing the limestone to then roll or slide down slope, lowering mountain peaks, gradually Sa Phin commune consists of 11 villages: Sa Phin A, Sa Phin B, Sa Phin C, Thanh Ma Tung, Lau Cha Tung, Ly Cha Tung, Lung Hoa A, Lung Hoa B, Ha Ho, San Si Tung, Lung Thau.
35 eling on the Happiness Road would
Lung Hoa B is one of 11 villages of Sa Phin commune, Dong Van District, Ha Giang C highway while some other
(Source: Nguyen Ngoc Minh 2016)
As we can see from the figure 2.10, almost all households of Lung Hoa B settle in a mountains. However, the territory of Lung Hoa B village, fields spreading out on mountainsides near -heritage namely rock desertification. the karst plateau with low rain fall, high evaporation, the big mmer, frost and ice in winter, and so on are factors that speed up the physical weathering process, causing the limestone to then roll or slide down slope, lowering mountain peaks, gradually Ma Tung, Lau Cha Tung, Ly
36 widening valleys and creating 'rock desert' landscape with distinctive cones or towers. Worth mentioning is that in Vietnam such a unique karst landscape 'Moon's surface' – 'rock desert' is seen only in the Dong Van Plateau. This heritage now has become a well-known touristic attraction of Dong Van Karst Plateau Global Geopark.
Figure 2.9. Moon's Surface (Source: Nguyen Ngoc Minh 2017)