Sometimes, when I sit and think, it feels like a dream. I've lived in Northwest Vietnam since childhood, and each time I return to the lowlands, it's a long, arduous journey through rugged mountains and remote areas... The scenery initially evokes a sense of grandeur and wonder, but then quickly becomes monotonous and boring... Now, roads have brought Northwest Vietnam closer, and the most exciting thing is traveling by plane. From the air or from the wings, Northwest Vietnam reveals a new landscape of fruit trees, a region of cultural and historical tourism intertwined with ecology and nature, full of surprises and wonder. Isn't that like a dream?

Ta Xua - one of the highest mountain peaks in Vietnam, located in Bac Yen district (Son La province) bordering Tram Tau district (Yen Bai province).
Image:Nhat Quang.

Son Lainto a new fruit-lined route

Over the past decade or so, the road leading to Northwest Vietnam has become a verdant landscape, laden with fruit. From Cao Phong town in Hoa Binh province, there are vast orchards of sweet oranges. Then, through Moc Chau, Yen Chau, Mai Son, Na San, and Son La city, you'll find lush fruit gardens everywhere, filled with a variety of delicious fruits. And so it continues further, to Tuan Giao, Dien Bien, Lai Chau… Son La now boasts approximately 100 hectares of hilly land planted with fruit trees, ranking second among provinces nationwide. A modern fruit processing plant for export, built by the TH Group in Van Ho district along National Highway 6, has recently been inaugurated…

People in small villages, belonging to the Thai and Mong ethnic groups, have become members of new-style cooperatives. They cultivate fruit trees using advanced technology of modern agriculture. Large orchards growing plums, mangoes, avocados, sweet bananas, passion fruit, oranges, and longan, all meeting VietGAP quality standards, are scattered from Van Ho, Moc Chau plateau, up to Yen Chau, Mai Son, Na San plateau, and extending to the border, to once remote districts like Quynh Nhai and Song Ma…

Fruits grown in the Northwest region have reached the world market. Son La mangoes are exported to the US, UK, and Australia, and now Yen Chau bananas and Quynh Nhai longan are also being exported. Recently, Son La has been exporting tens of tons of various fruits annually to the EU and countries such as the UK, Australia, the US, Cambodia, and China.

Son La has accelerated the restructuring of its agricultural sector, developed high-tech agriculture, and built and developed production, processing, consumption, and export chains for agricultural products. Along with numerous investment attraction policies, Son La has laid the fundamental foundation for the fruit and vegetable industry, from production and processing to consumption and export.

Son La now has approximately 100 hectares of hilly land planted with fruit trees, ranking second among provinces and cities nationwide. (Photo)Tung Dinh.

Nowadays, the road journey between Hanoi and Son La city only takes about 5 hours by car at a leisurely pace. But every time I travel on that route, memories of my arduous childhood years there still flood back to me. My parents would often gather their leave, every two or three years, and bring their ragged children back to visit their hometown in the lowlands. The round trip from the tiny mountainous town of Son La to Hanoi used to take two to three days. I used to spend nights at Km 22, Suoi Rut, then Moc Chau, Yen Chau in damp guesthouses along that winding mountain road… When I got older and went to university, this time was reduced to a day and a half, and I still had to spend nights along the way…

It was a time of poverty, but also of dreams and excitement. I dozed off on the bumpy bus, eager to reach my destination, knowing what awaited me. In Yen Chau town, there were bunches of sweet bananas, small mangoes with rosy red flesh, and an intoxicating aroma. In Moc Chau, the weather was cool, with grilled corn and peaches and plums carried down from the high mountains by the Hmong people. At Km 22, Suoi Rut, there was sticky rice cooked over charcoal, and in the evening, mist shrouded the Da River…

During my university years, I returned to Son La twice a year, during the summer and Tet (Lunar New Year). On my way back to school, passing through Yen Chau, I would often buy several bunches of bananas and ten kilograms of green mangoes, politely asking the driver to let me tie them to the roof of the car. Back then, mangoes from Yen Chau and Thuan Chau could still be sold in Hanoi; they were small but sweet and fragrant. The bananas from there were also well-received. Dried bamboo shoots, wood ear mushrooms, and other mountain products bought in Moc Chau were appealing because they were unique and inexpensive. But then, over time, the subsidy system was abolished, and goods became more widely available. Cat mangoes and many other attractive fruits were transported from the South. Wood ear mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, and bamboo shoots from the Viet Bac mountains were brought down. The types of upland corn and horse-tooth corn grown spontaneously in the mountains of Northwest Vietnam are now only good for animal feed, and have little value anymore when rice from the Southern plains is transported there... With the transition to a market economy, suddenly Son La and Northwest Vietnam are no longer beautiful mountainous regions, because they have no products that contribute to the common life of the whole country, except for... hydroelectric power.

I returned a couple of times, traveling on roads that had become much wider. Looking out the car window, the hills and mountains still stretched endlessly, and I silently wondered, when will it be...NorthwestWill Son La become a rich and beautiful land? I asked that question, then thought, surely the Northwest region in general, and Son La in particular, must find certain crops that will become its strengths. Those crops will flourish on the rolling hills, bringing new economic value to the area. And along with that, cultural tourism… I once trembled with excitement, anxiously following the results when I heard about the plan to plant industrial crops in Son La, such as coffee, rubber, grass for dairy farming, and sugarcane for sugar production… But then I was saddened to learn that those crops didn't thrive, didn't become the crops of the Northwest, of Son La.

"Visiting Son La today, one can easily feel the green color of trees, fruits, and vegetables, along with the green of the forest gradually regenerating on the high hills," former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh observed. (Photo:)Tung Dinh.

How wonderful it is that, after much searching and effort, Son La and the Northwest region have discovered new potential, and the fruit season has arrived. Son La has clearly emerged as a new capital of fruit trees. It's even more joyful to see high-quality, commercially valuable flower varieties being grown and thriving in the Moc Chau plateau. And to see roses blooming in a multitude of vibrant colors in the Ngoc Chien valley deep in Muong La…

New aircraft flying to Dien Bien

National Highway No. 6 was renovated, expanded, and upgraded in preparation for the 30th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory (1984). It was then further upgraded during the construction of the Ta Bu and Muong La hydroelectric power plants. This road leads to Son La, Dien Bien, and Lai Chau.NorthwestThe route is becoming increasingly spacious… The Hoa Binh - Son La route has been added to the Vietnam Expressway Network Development Plan. The Hoa Binh - Moc Chau expressway has commenced construction and, upon completion, will connect with the Lang - Hoa Lac and Hoa Lac - Hoa Binh expressways, shortening the travel time from Son La to Hanoi to just over 2 hours by car.

At the end of 2023, to celebrate and prepare for new developments following the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory, the Dien Bien Phu Airport upgrade project was inaugurated and has been operating smoothly ever since. The flight route to Dien Bien Phu has reached a new level compared to its historical development, bringing closer a border region in the Northwest of the country with rich cultural and historical heritage and many potentials that need to be further developed…

Four years after the Dien Bien Phu victory, in 1958, civilian air transport operated by the military was opened at Dien Bien Phu airport, but operations were very limited due to the war and division of the country. It wasn't until 1984 that civilian passenger flights began using aircraft such as the AN24 and AK40. Then, more than ten years later, in 1995, after a significant upgrade and renovation, the frequency of flights to the airport gradually increased, with the use of modern, small passenger aircraft like the ATR72. By early 2024, after a modernization upgrade and an investment of over 1.5 trillion VND to expand and extend the runway to 2,400m, along with the apron system, support and service areas, Dien Bien Phu Airport had taken on the appearance of an airport capable of handling common passenger aircraft such as the Airbus A320, A321 and similar models. It not only operates the Hanoi - Dien Bien Phu route but also connects to Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Can Tho, and more. In the future, it may expand to connect with many more countries, potentially becoming an international airport.

Rubber plantations stretch across the Điện Biên region. Photo:Hoang Anh.

The development of Dien Bien Phu Airport evokes memories and a sense of history for this remote border region. Dien Bien Phu Airport is situated in the middle of the Muong Thanh plain, a wide, flat valley surrounded by mountain ranges. Muong Thanh is one of the four major "muong" (districts) in the Northwest, derived from Muong Then, meaning "Heavenly Land" or "Land of Heaven" in the Thai language. This area belonged to Lam Tay district from the late Ly dynasty, then to Da Giang province in the early Tran dynasty, and finally to Thien Hung town at the end of the Tran dynasty. Originally, it was a region ruled by Thai and Lu ethnic leaders, essentially self-governing, until King Le Thanh Tong's military campaigns to quell rebellions in the Northwest, at which point it came under the true control of the Le dynasty of Dai Viet. King Le Thanh Tong divided the country into 12 provinces, and this region was part of Hung Hoa province.

During its first half-century of prosperity, after unifying and expanding the territory to the seas of Ha Tien, Phu Quoc Island, and extending to the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa islands, the Nguyen Dynasty strengthened its control over the northern border regions of the country. In this endeavor, this area was renamed Hung Hoa province by Emperor Minh Mang in 1831. Later, the third emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty, Thieu Tri, a learned Confucian scholar and lover of poetry, renamed it Dien Bien in 1841. "Dien" means "firmly established," and "Bien" means "border." Dien Bien thus carried the hopes of the nation, and was chosen as the prefectural capital, known as Dien Bien Prefecture, governing three districts: Ninh Bien, Tuan Giao, and Lai Chau…

The name Dien Bien Phu, later known as Dien Bien Phu, was given in the first half of the 19th century, and not many people knew about it. Yet, more than 100 years later, in 1954, Dien Bien Phu became famous throughout the world, associated with a victory that "shook the world and resonated across five continents." The historic Dien Bien Phu victory was not only the final blow to the French occupation, restoring peace in North Vietnam and bringing the name Dien Bien Phu to the world, but also the starting point for the journey of building Dien Bien Phu to what it is today.

After 1954, Dien Bien Phu gradually transformed from a battlefield into an agricultural farm. Many soldiers who participated in the Dien Bien Phu liberation campaign remained to work as farmhands. Many residents from the Northern Delta were mobilized to build their new homeland. Initially, Dien Bien Phu resembled an agricultural town. Four years later, in 1958, it became the district town of Dien Bien District in Lai Chau Province. In 1992, Dien Bien Phu was upgraded to a city. In September 2003, Dien Bien Phu town was expanded and upgraded to a city. In November 2003, the National Assembly passed a resolution dividing Lai Chau Province into two provinces: Lai Chau and Dien Bien. On January 1, 2004, Dien Bien Province was officially established by separating the western and southwestern parts of the former Lai Chau Province. Dien Bien Phu City became the capital of Dien Bien Province.

The golden ripe rice fields of Muong Thanh create a unique landscape in the mountains of Northwest Vietnam. (Photo: [Image caption])Thanh Chuong.

Dien Bien Province is home to A Pa Chai, the westernmost point of Vietnam, and has a border stretching over 450 km, bordering both Laos and China. Dien Bien, affectionately known as the "Land of the Ban Flower," is home to ten ethnic groups: Kinh, Thai, Mong, Dao, Giay, Tay, Ha Nhi, Si La, Lao, and Cong, with nearly 640,000 people living across an area of ​​over 9,500 km2. Dien Bien Province currently comprises one city, one town, and eight districts.

The city of Dien Bien Phu today is much larger than the former Muong Thanh valley. Muong Thanh, Hong Cum, Him Lam, the apricot blossoms are white, the orange groves are golden, making this land prosperous, green, romantic, and harmoniously integrated into the great transformations of the entire country. Now, from the air above Dien Bien Phu, under our eyes, we still see the roads from Thanh Hoa and Ninh Binh, from Phu Yen and Bac Yen crossing the Da River, from Hoa Binh, Moc Chau, and Yen Chau, all converging at Pha Din Pass, one of the "four great passes" of the Northwest mountainous region, where human and material resources, even blood and bones, were poured into "fifty-six days and nights of digging tunnels, sleeping in bunkers, enduring torrential rain, and eating dried rice" in preparation for the historic assault on the enemy stronghold. Upon landing at the airport, we can gradually walk past the remnants of the old battlefields at Independence Hill, A1 Hill, Muong Thanh Bridge… and then to the Dien Bien Phu Victory Museum to recall the hardships, heroism, and unwavering determination that led to victory…

Dien Bien is now a tourist destination with unique attractions such as: A Pa Chai, the westernmost point of Vietnam; Muong Nha Nature Reserve; Tua Chua Stone Plateau; Pa Khoang and Huoi Pe lakes; U Va and Hua Pe hot springs; Pa Thom, Kho Chua La, and Pe Rang Ky caves; Ban Phu and Tam Van fortresses… As a province located at the tri-border junction, it already has a modern airport, and soon the Trans-Asian Highway will pass through this province, as well as a highway from Son La to Dien Bien and extending to the Tay Trang border gate…

From the current flight path to Dien Bien Phu, and from the highways that will open up in the future, new perspectives have been opened up for us to see that the beloved Northwest region seems to be preparing to enter a very strong and new phase of development; the land of this border region will no longer be distant, but will seem to soar higher…

Source: nongnghiep.vn