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Location: Along with Cuc Phuong National
Forest, Ba Vi National Park is thought of as the natural “air - conditioner” or
“green lungs” of the northern delta and the city of Hanoi within. Ba Vi is
located in Ba Vi District, Ha Tay Province, 60 km west of Hanoi. It was elevated
to national park status on December 18, 1991.
Characteristic: In the middle stands Mount Ba Vi, a three-humped peak
that rises steeply out of a plain rarely exceeding 30 meters in elevation.
In general, the slopes on the western side
are steeper than the east and average 25 degrees, but above 400 meters they
reach a gradient of 35 degrees in places and rocky cliffs are present. The three
summits are Vua, the tallest at 1,296 meters, Tan Vien 1,227m and Ngoc Hoa 1,131
m. Because of the mountainous topography, the climate at Ba Vi varies with
altitude and mist enshrouds the peak’s upper slopes on most days. Except for the
Da River on the western side of the national park, Ba Vi has no large, permanent
water bodies. Covering 11,372 hectares, the park is a primitive forest with
thousands of giant trees hundreds of years old. There, natural forest is mainly
distributed at elevations above 600 meters. The native plants are lowland
evergreens, lower mountain evergreens and lower mountain mixed coniferous and
broadleaf forest. Ba Vi boasts 812 species of vascular plants, of which several
species were described for the first time from the site, for example Ixora
balansae, Litsea baviensis and Lasianthus langkokensis, as well as 776 species
of mammals, reptiles, birds and amphibians. The area is also home to hundreds of
relics dating back a century or more to the French colonial era, like the old
military training range and the church. The park is well known as a beauty spot
called “Tan Mountain and the Da River” and also known for thousands of years as
the origin of the legend Son Tinh Thuy Tinh (mountain god sea god). The legend
goes that King Hung wanted an outstanding husband for his daughter Ngoc Hoa,
also called My Nuong, so he told the two likeliest candidates, Son Tinh and Thuy
Tinh, to come up with precious offerings like a nine-tusked elephant, a
nine-spurred fighting cock and a horse with nine pink manes. Son Tinh brought
them first and so was promised My Nuong’s hand in marriage. Arriving late, Thuy
Tinh became angry and used magic to raise the ocean and cause a devastating
flood in order to kill Son Tinh. But the successful suitor countered the flood
by raising the mountain and helping the locals combat the rising waters.
Nowadays you can see the traces said to be those of Thuy Tinh’s flood near the
site on Tan Vien where stands a shrine built in the 11th century to commemorate
the Mountain God, or Saint Tan Vien, one of the immortals in the mythology of
the Vietnamese people of yore. At Ba Vi there is also a village of the Dao
people, one of the north’s numerous ethnic minorities. A visit there will give
you some understanding of the Dao’s way of life and the chance to dine on a
delicacy based on bamboo shoots. With its great natural beauty as well as diverse
and abundant biological systems, Ba Vi National Park is ideal for tourists and
researchers. The park’s Environmental Education and Ecotourism Service Center
operates several informative guided tours to different parts of Ba Vi.
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