Taste of North West Vietnam diffuses in Fansipan flower village

• Sapa named among the 50 most beautiful places on the planet
• Northwestern food served during culture festival in Sapa

The taste of North West region

Huong Giang, a visitor from Hanoi, has decided to come back to the Sun World Fansipan Legend site just a month after her first visit. Surprisingly, what has made she come back is not the spectacular landscape, or the world record cable car system helping her reach the roof of Indochina, but the special and unique taste of the North West region at this tourist attraction.

Soon after arriving at the Fansipan cable car station, she walked to the traditional market located next to the Sa Pa rose garden to find the brocade stall of a funny H'mong women she had met before.

Since the Sun World Fansipan Legend weekly market opens for free in support of ethnic people to trade local-made brocade crafts, brocade-lovers like Huong Thao would not have to travel to remote hamlets to buy typical brocade products of local ethnic minorities.

From 9 to 11 am, Thao and her friends chose a nice place near the clock tower to have 5-color sticky rice with barbequed meat while waiting for the performance of the traditional wedding ceremony of the Red Dao ethnic people.

According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Chien, Director of the Sun World Fansipan Legend, the Red Dao wedding ceremony is performed by artisans from Khoang village, Sa Pa. "We have invited local artisans to participate in the show, to give visitors the most authentic quintessential experience of the North West traditional culture," he said.

Besides, the Sun World Fansipan Legend regularly organizes traditional arts and cultural shows performed by local artists and people, along with many folk games that attract a lot of visitors. The sunflower garden and buckwheat garden are also well-known places for young people.

"The reconstruction of the North West cultural space at the Sun World Fansipan Legend was not an easy task. We spent months to visit each village, persuade each artisan, each person to join us in promoting tourism. Since the first year of operation, many special festivals have been organized to honor the local culture. Each program is organized in a professional way and received much support and love from the locals and visitors," Mr. Nguyen Xuan Chien said.

In 2017, Sa Pa attracted 2.5 million visitors, up by 60% compared to 2016.

Success begins from cultural roots

"Deep and durable roots" has become Sun World Fansipan Legend's sustainable development strategy to exploit the local culture as well as the idea Sun Group, its parental company has realized at all Sun World-invested tourist sites nationwide.

These include the Lunar New Year traditional market in Sun World Halong Complex, the making of Chung cake and Sticky rice cake on the New Year Eve at Sun World Ba Na Hills, the Spring Apricot Blossom Festival and the Lantern Festival at Sun World Danang Wonder.

In August, the national championship of lion dance Sun World Cup was organized successfully at Sun World Da Nang Wonders with the participation of nearly 30 teams. The event has attracted thousands of tourists and is expected to become an annual playground for lion dance groups nationwide, contributing to promoting the traditional arts to domestic and international tourists.

Traditional culture and local essence always hold a strong glamour. Sun World is going in the right direction when developing tourism via introduction of landmarks and local cultural features.