Long An connects many typical tourist routes from the renovation of the swamps

In recent years, tourism in Long An - the gateway to the Mekong Delta - has been awakened. Many lands that were just wild reed fields more than a decade ago have now become unforgettable destinations. And closely linking with Ho Chi Minh City and the "nine dragons" land is the direction of Long An tourism industry.

For over a year, My Quynh Zoo (Tan My Commune, Duc Hoa District, Long An) or commonly known as Safari My Quynh has become a familiar destination for people in Ho Chi Minh City and Long An. Partly because of its location next to Thay Cai Canal, only 8km from the center of Cu Chi District. Partly because this 50ha zoo has become one of the largest zoos in Vietnam since its inception, including many wildlife and semi-wild animal viewing areas, as well as water parks, resorts... very suitable for families with children from Song Be to Song Tien to come to rest, play, visit and learn about nature. The animals here are affectionately called Quynh by Mr. Ngo Tri Dung - owner of My Quynh Zoo. Mr. Dung only needs to call "Quynh" and flocks of deer and pigeons will swoop down and surround him, asking for food.

Long An liên kết nhiều tuyến du lịch đặc trưng từ cải tạo đồng bưng - Ảnh 2.

"My Quynh is my daughter's name. I love her very much. But our house is in the city, so she comes home from school and plays games all day. Once when I went to South Africa, I saw their wild animal breeding model, and I immediately thought that I had to build a zoo so that my child would have a place to play with nature so that she could stop playing games," Mr. Dung confided. The most special and outstanding feature of this tourist area is that visitors will be able to feed wild animals right in their own habitat. If feeding gentle animals like deer bran right from the hand, or feeding bananas to rhinos through a fence... to feel the connection between humans and nature, then sitting directly in cage cars, entering the natural tiger habitat and picking up chicken thighs for the "kings of the jungle" to growl and compete to enjoy right in front of you is truly an unforgettable experience.

Long An liên kết nhiều tuyến du lịch đặc trưng từ cải tạo đồng bưng - Ảnh 3.

Now, when he sees children coming to the zoo happily giving food to the deer to eat right from their hands, looking at the large water park for thousands of people, the rest house under the cool shade of green trees, Mr. Dung himself also... shudders when thinking back on the past years of renovating the fields. "More than 800 billion VND has been poured in, now even if we let them do it, we still can't do it again," Mr. Dung said. The area for tigers, crocodiles, and wild animals is quite easy, because we only need to build fences and build roads. But planting trees to create shade in the buffer zone for visitors to rest and visit is not simple. Here, the sun is hot above, and the bottom is full of alum. "Ten thousand large banyan trees were planted for shade, but after a year they all died, and people around came to take them home for firewood. The water was alum and the soil was also alum, so no other plants could survive except for reeds and rushes. We had to add more soil and buy cow dung to create new thick layers to replant, and then we have the rows of trees we have today," Mr. Dung recalled.

Long An liên kết nhiều tuyến du lịch đặc trưng từ cải tạo đồng bưng - Ảnh 4.

Long An liên kết nhiều tuyến du lịch đặc trưng từ cải tạo đồng bưng - Ảnh 5.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, many tourist attractions in Long An have officially opened to welcome visitors, restarting this key economic sector, including Chavi Garden (Thanh Loi commune, Ben Luc district) on National Highway N2, an important route connecting Ho Chi Minh City through Dong Thap Muoi in Long An to Dong Thap and An Giang provinces...

Long An liên kết nhiều tuyến du lịch đặc trưng từ cải tạo đồng bưng - Ảnh 6.

The sweetening of acid sulfate soils, replacing the plains with agricultural land, is one of the profound transformations of the Mekong Delta in the past four decades, and it is still continuing. In 2010, along with the process of improving acid sulfate soils in the south of Dong Thap Muoi to grow lemons and guavas by people in Duc Hue and Ben Luc districts, Mr. Nguyen Van Hien decided to change direction from the construction industry to invest in 150 hectares in Thanh Loi commune, Ben Luc district to grow lemons. Only one year later, the organic seedless lemon farm was lush green. Not only stopping at "raw harvesting", Mr. Hien continued to invest in factories producing lemon products such as soft drinks and lemon powder. By 2016, Chavi brand had exported products to markets in Europe, Japan, Korea... CHAVI products have covered the whole country through a system of distributors, agents, large supermarket chains, on e-commerce platforms. "I am still very passionate about tourism. The fact that many visitors when traveling to Dong Thap and An Giang provinces often stop by to visit the lemon farm over the years has gradually urged me to open a more systematic tourist stopover, so Chavi Garden was built in 2017 with 45 hectares", Mr. Hien said.

Long An liên kết nhiều tuyến du lịch đặc trưng từ cải tạo đồng bưng - Ảnh 7.

And since its inception since the beginning of the year, Chavi Garden has not only been a simple stop for visitors to see and learn about the largest lemon garden in the delta, visit agricultural product processing activities, but also to relax among the large flower gardens, river landscapes, and to immerse themselves in the activities and rustic games of the stylized Southwest lifestyle such as rowing, cycling, horse-drawn carriage rides... Besides, this tourist destination has also strongly developed more types of experiential education to welcome groups of children and students with a series of battlefield games, Sasuke, grass sliding, canoe racing, rope swinging, cycling on water, rain bathing... or access to skills on accident prevention, fire prevention, vegetable growing, rice growing, fishing, housework... Mr. Hien was also elected as the chairman of the Long An Provincial Tourism Association, which was newly established at the end of 2022, to continue working with tourism workers across this Southwest gateway province. invite guests

Long An liên kết nhiều tuyến du lịch đặc trưng từ cải tạo đồng bưng - Ảnh 8.

Long An liên kết nhiều tuyến du lịch đặc trưng từ cải tạo đồng bưng - Ảnh 9.

The above-mentioned new tourist attractions, along with the renovated ecological areas that have preserved the wild nature such as Tan Lap Floating Village, Dong Thap Muoi Medicinal Plant Conservation Research Center... Long An tourism industry is increasingly creating many convenient tourist routes for people from Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring provinces. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Thanh - Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism - said that tourism connection is still one of the leading solutions to promote the province's tourism industry.

Long An liên kết nhiều tuyến du lịch đặc trưng từ cải tạo đồng bưng - Ảnh 10.

"Long An tourism cannot be separated from the connection and cooperation with Ho Chi Minh City and the provinces and cities of the Mekong Delta. In regional connection, identify typical routes and points with two main product lines. One is eco-tourism associated with Tan Lap Floating Village Tourist Area, Dong Thap Muoi Medicinal Herb Center, which are both creating differences with localities with similar resources such as Tien Giang , Dong Thap, or some other Western provinces. The second is entertainment and recreation tourism products associated with places such as My Quynh Zoo, Phuoc Loc Tho Ancient Village, Chavi Garden, Happyland...", Mr. Thanh said. To link and exploit tourism, in recent years, Long An has coordinated with Ho Chi Minh City to organize many conferences on post-COVID-19 recovery, organize training courses, improve expertise in management, tourism activities, welcome many businesses, tour operators, and travel companies to survey...

Long An liên kết nhiều tuyến du lịch đặc trưng từ cải tạo đồng bưng - Ảnh 11.

In the coming time, Mr. Thanh said that Long An will continue to expand and strengthen cooperation in tourism development with localities across the country in general, the Mekong Delta provinces in developing tourism in the extended Mekong sub-region, with Ho Chi Minh City and localities in the Southern key economic zone to develop tourism on the trans-Asia route through Ho Chi Minh City. At the same time, promote the organization, construction and implementation of planning, product development, connecting tourist tours, building tourism brand routes such as linking Lang Sen Wetland Reserve with Tram Chim National Park of Dong Thap , linking tourism in Tan An and its vicinity with Ho Chi Minh City, Tan Lap - Binh Hiep border gate with Svay Rieng province of Cambodia, Duc Hoa - its vicinity with Ba Den mountain, Tay Ninh and Ho Chi Minh City, Can Duoc - Go Cong of Tien Giang, Can Giuoc - Can Gio, Ho Chi Minh City.

Long An liên kết nhiều tuyến du lịch đặc trưng từ cải tạo đồng bưng - Ảnh 12.

Particularly with Ho Chi Minh City, Long An will also expand special cooperation with Bach Dang wharf and passenger shipping units or cruise companies operating routes from Ho Chi Minh City - Mekong Delta, to open passenger ship and cruise routes to Long An, develop tourism products along the Vam Co Dong and Vam Co Tay rivers. Dong Thap will continue to cooperate to develop the Dong Thap Muoi lowland area for the model of experiencing landscapes and people's lives during the flood season... "We will also focus on exploiting the advantages of Long An as a border province with an international border gate, promoting links with Cambodia to create regional tourism programs within the framework of cooperation in developing tourism in the extended Mekong sub-region, building a number of cross-border tourism programs, connecting famous destinations of Long An with destinations on the Cambodian border territory", Mr. Thanh added.