The mountainous homestay village: yellow canola flowers fill the land, white pear flowers fill the forest

The beautiful pear garden once almost ceased to exist

Passing through the most beautiful and grand stone gate in Hong Thai commune, Na Hang district (Tuyen Quang), following along the stone fence, the pear garden of Mr. Dang Xuan Cuong's family soon made its appearance in Khau Trang village.

In just a few days, Mr. Cuong's pear garden will be crowded with visitors from the lowlands. They will come here to experience the high mountain fresh, admire the scenery and take some pictures. This is also the season when the pear garden brings him hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dong.

No one would have thought that only five years ago Mr. Cuong was very determined to cut down a part of his pear garden in order to grow grass to feed his cattle. It was because the pear garden was fruitful but he had no way to sell the fruits. It was already difficult just to use them as gifts since every house in the village had at least one pear tree or more.

Hearing news about his intention, the commune official came to his house and told him that the pear garden was planted on his land, but it was still the property of the state. "This is a plant project with the goal of changing the lives of people in the highlands. Only a few years from now, when a clear road has been made and a safe agro-products certificate is acquired, your pears will bring you money."

And as the official said, a year later, the road down the mountain of the Dao people in Hong Thai, once full of potholes big and small, ready to pull anyone down and force them to fall, was replaced by a smooth asphalt road.

Motorcycles and cars from the lowland could then reach the village. Goods, agro-products and even the yin-yang tiled wooden houses, the pear flowers, the stories indigenous culture also became something that fills the money bag on the side waist of the Dao man and woman, giving them a happy life and a full stomach.

The pear garden of Mr. Cuong's family became a destination that many guests look for. Another thing to mention was that in the 2021 pear crop he had collected hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dong from ticket sales to visitors going to his pear garden. The pears themselves also helped him earn an additional VND 40 million.

Hong Thai in March, intertwined with mountains and clouds, is also the season of the beautiful yellow canola flowers. Like pear, the people's canola garden has two harvest periods. One may consider the pear tree in the flowering season as the best time to earn an income, the situation for the canola garden is actually the same.

Hong Thai’s safe vegetable area has been established with more than 5 ha up to now. More than 1 ha is utilized to both grow vegetables for daily consumption and nurture flower for tourism. The canola beds, like a river of gold winding halfway up the hill, surely satisfy visitors' love for beauty and passion for taking souvenir photos.

Letting strangers come to eat and sleep under the same roof

At the ages of youngsters like Dang Thi Duong, the youthful 18, it is no longer rare for people in Dao village to attend university.

After graduating from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Duong studied Chinese and worked as an interpreter for a company in the capital. But then in 2017, longing for the way back to Hong Thai, Duong resigned from her job and returned to work as a commune officer. She was assigned the task of pioneering the development of tourism services for the villages.

Her homestay - Cay Vai - was established shortly after her return. To welcome guests, Duong added a beautiful gate outside and performed full repair for the house, building grounds, and fence.

The villagers saw that Duong is different from other ordinary girls in the village, but even letting strangers come to her house and spend the night was too strange that they gossiped nonstop. But the commune authorities not only did not object but regularly visited and encouraged Duong. After that, a group of youngsters step up, and a series of homestays was born, making the homestay service movement more and more flourishing in Hong Thai.

The villagers soon came to a realization that homestay is tourism, just welcoming guests to stay with them means making the house more cozy and bustling while being able to earn money to put food on the table.

Since then, the villagers cherish Duong dearly. Whenever there is any difficulty in tourism services or policies, many villagers come to Duong to ask for a solution. And with each time Duong readily gives them a helping hand, the villagers give her many gifts. Sometimes it’s cassava tubers, corn, even wild vegetables. It is these small gifts that despite having to pass the thousands-meter mountain way to the villages, Duong's feet have never known of tiredness.