Introduction

 

​Long An province is located at the quite special geographical location because although the province is located in the Mekong River Delta Region, the province belongs to Key Economic Development Zone in the South which is defined as the key economic area with specially important role in the economic development strategy of Vietnam. Long An ratios the borders with the Kingdom of Cambodia with the length of 132.977 km and two border gates of Binh Hiep (Moc Hoa) and Tho Mo (Duc Hue). Long An is the gateway connecting the Southeast Region with Mekong River Delta Region, specially the province ratios the borders with Ho Chi Minh city by the road system such as National Highway No. 1A, National Highway No. 50 etc. and provincial roads of DT.823, DT.824, DT.825 etc. The interregional and national waterway has been upgraded, expanded, newly constructed to create the driving force and new opportunities for the development. In addition, Long An province is also provided with the water source from two river systems of Me Kong and Dong Nai. ​Being a province located next to Ho Chi Minh City with the closer and closer economic relation with the South Key Economic Development Zone, especially Ho Chi Minh city which is an important province in the South which accounts for 50% of the industrial output of the whole country and the biggest investment, technology transfer partner and biggest agricultural product consumption market of Mekong River Delta Region.

The natural area of the entire province is 449,194.49 ha, the population is 1,542,606 (according to the population statistics up to May 2013). The geographical coordinates are: 105⁰30' 30'' to 106⁰47' 02'' East Longitude and 10⁰23' 40'' to 11⁰02' 00'' Northern Latitude.

Long An Province has 15 administrative units including districts of Duc Hue, Duc Hoa, Ben Luc, Can Duoc, Can Giuoc, Thu Thua, Tan Tru, Chau Thanh, Thanh Hoa, Tan Thanh, Moc Hoa, Vinh Hung, Tan Hung, Kien Tuong Town and Tan An City; and 192 administrative units of commune level including 166 communes, 12 wards and 14 towns.​

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Contact: http://www.kcnhaison.com.vn​

Distance to traffic hubs

To National Highway 1A 11km

17 km to the center of Ho Chi Minh City

25 km to Tan Son Nhat International Airport

3 km to center of Duc Hoa 

4 km to Vam Co Dong river 

Hai Son Industrial Park is connected to the important roads such as Highway 1A, Xuyen A highway, Saigon 

Trung Luong freeway, Provincial Road 825, 830 ...

Convenient roa raffic and waterway for transporting goods and supplies from the Industrial park to ports, neighboring provinces and Cambodia

Source: Long An Economic Zone Authority (LEAZA)

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Distance to traffic hubs

Road distance
Center of Ho Chi Minh City is about 35km
Border of HCM city is about 10 km (Binh Chanh)
Tan Son Nhat International Airport is about 30 km

Source: Long An Economic Zone Authority (LEAZA)

​1. With the advantages of routes crossing over the province, namely the National Highway (NH) 1, NH N2, NH 50, and Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong expressway, getting to Long An by land transport becomes quite convenient. Nguyen Thi Thuy, Deputy Director of Long An Department of Culture - Sports and Tourism, provides: ''Presently, the provincial sector of Culture - Sports and Tourism encourages and raises socialization to invest in historical relics, tourist areas to attract visitors, especially on Tet and special occasions".

Khang Thong Recreational Complex (Happyland)

Along the NH 1 on the path from Ho Chi Minh City to provinces, cities of the western region, just as passing over Ben Luc bridge, enter Nhut Chanh four-way intersection, then turn right onto Provincial Road (PR) 816, it is Khang Thong Recreational Complex in Thanh Duc Commune, Ben Luc District right where you reach. On New Year and special occasions, plenty of bustling and enjoyable activities are organized, attracting a lot of tourists to come and join, such as flower market, music gala, circus, folk games, cultural depictions of various regions, areas. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thai - Happyland's Manager, stated that in the Lunar New Year 2021, the spring flower festival to serve the visitors is even now the significant cultural feature of the three regions.

Coming here, tourists are offered chances to immerse in the regional culture-engraved music: Southern Music of Amateurs (Don ca tai tu Nam Bo), Hue Royal Refined Music (Nha nhac cung dinh Hue), and water puppetry. Additionally, there are typical markets of three regions, namely Ben Thanh market in the South, Dong Ba market in the central region, and Dong Xuan market in the North, etc. Besides, the tourist area erects a mini "East Sea" with two models of Paracel Islands (Hoang Sa) and Spratly Islands (Truong Sa) spreading the message of protection and preservation of national maritime sovereignty. Plus, the mini " Truong Son forest mountains" is also created to give a portrait of more than 50 ethnic groups' characteristics. Especially, Happyland is equipped with a food court that serves specialties of three regions. "In the coming future, Khang Thong company is going to provide visitors with a mini supermarket. Alongside the Vam Co Dong's riverbank, food stalls and riverside cafes are ready to offer services everyday" - Mr. Thai further stated.

Mr. Ho Huynh Anh Son, a Happyland's staff, informed: "The tourist area has been added several constructions that are simulators of Trang Tien Bridge (Thua Thien Hue), Western flower field, recaptured brickyard of ancient times, area for artificial rain showers, "Nang Thom" paddy field, Hai Tuong Aquarium, seaside aquariums,  and so on".

2. Ms. Nguyen Dang Thi Ngoc Han - sales staff of Ecological Tourist Area of Tan Lap floating village (Tan Lap Commune, Moc Hoa district), expressed: "The tourist site's area is over 130 hectares with surrounding year-round subsurface dykes which means visitors can come to admire particularly picturesque sceneries of the flood season in the Plain of Reeds with natural creatures such as lotus, water lily, birds, storks, etc. Recently, an eight-story floating hotel has been added for renovation. Tourists staying overnight at the cajeput forest are going to enjoy a fascinating time here".

The Ecological Tourist Site of Tan Lap Floating Village

Based on Thap Muoi Tourism Co., Ltd's information - investor of Tan Lap Floating Village, the company are going to build more amusement areas soon, chiefly for the refurbished domestication area of birds with an area of over 10 hectares, the folk games area are having more interesting games, night cinemas are also being supplied to serve visitors. Presently, underground tow-cable systems were equipped to move passenger trains with a speed of 3 kilometers every 50 minutes. Visitors can feel free to go sightseeing, take photos as their keepsakes, feast their eyes on the beauty of the lotus, water lily, and cajeput forest. To ones who are keen explorers, going hiking on a 5-kilometer-long trail through the forest or climbing up to an 18-meter-high tower to overlook the forest. The ecological tourist site currently brings electric shuttle-cars into use to drop visitors off at the tourist spots.

Ms. Ngoc Han also provided that the food area is presently able to serve tourists the dishes of three regions, mainly rural dishes of the Plain of Reeds. Large quantities of visitors left positive feedbacks and praised for tasty dishes, a rather good service attitude and infrastructure.

Mr. Le Van Hue, a local citizen, who is currently an electric car driver of the company, shared: "Since Thap Muoi Co., Ltd's investment in the ecological tourist site, the area has drawn a huge number of tourists, mostly the youths from Ho Chi Minh City, thus it facilitates the jobs for local people".

3. Being notable for leisure travel form of travel which attracts numerous visitors within and outside Long An, the Reserve owned by Dong Thap Muoi Reserve Study and Drug Development Joint Stock Company (JSC) (located in Binh Phong Thanh town, Moc Hoa district) has an area of up to 1.000 hectares. It also takes care of few hundreds of hectares of pristine cajeput forest, which brings abundant sources of drugs. Pharmacist Bui Dac Thang – the chairman of the board, General Director of Dong Thap Muoi Reserve Study and Drug Development JSC, expresses: "To ensure the customer retention, especially customers who appreciate health and relaxation, we fund different categories: running track, forest cycling, natural pools, fishing area, sauna, massage, etc. Furthermore, coming here, visitors can relax and get therapy with a variety of home remedies.

The Reserve belonging to Dong Thap Muoi Reserve Study and Drug Development JSC

 This Reserve is also renowned for including the temple of Hai Thuong Lan Ong - Godfather of the Vietnamese Medicine; the central location in "The Endless Field" movie, etc. Hence, it is annually visited by corps of students coming to study and explore. 

Turning onto Long An, visitors will fully enjoy taking in the fresh and warm air of the rural Plain of the Reeds, gain deeper insight into heroic historical traditions of the courageous and imperishable lands in images of cultural and historical relics. All fatigue and hustling things in the relentless drive of everyday life could be blotted out for a pleasant retreat when the spring arrives on every single corner of life./.

Source: https://news.baolongan.vn/

​/. Road traffic :

Until the end of 2004, roadways in province was 1.698km, in which asphalt roads were 474km, accounting for 27,9%, gravel roads were 1053km (62%), other kinds of roads were 171km (10,1%) (excluding rural roads). Total length of bridge was 15.799 m long/346 bridges, in which concrete bridges were 7.099 md/123 bridges, girder bridges were 6812 md/194 bridges, others were 1889 md/29 bridges. Density of road by area increased from 0,198 Km/Km² in 1991 to 0,285 Km/Km² in 2000 and 0,359 km/Km² in 2004.

Density of road by population increased from 0,667 Km/1.000 persons in 1991 to 0,957 Km/1000 person in 2000 and 1,130 km/1000 person in 2004.

In general, roadways system is prioritized to invest, helping actively to develop production and improve living standard of population. However, there also remain some roads not satisfying the demand of transportation, lacking of synchronism between roads and bridges, not forming uninterrupted branches of roads.

Most of the Southern communications network has not been increased, mainly improved, upgraded and expanded, except some rural roads. In Nothern region, the communications network has developed rapidly, contributing to reclaimation, reallocation of population. To date, traffic roads are, however, quite scattered in this region, province road only has some roads just for cars, branches of roads accessible to residential clusters have not been built yet. Therefore this has influenced to travel and organization of life of rural people.

At present, the system of bridges and roads have been built synchronously in term of capacity in most of main roads from province to district and roads to industrial zones. However, there still remain some roads with low-capacity bridges, constraining the development of cargo transportation.

In recent years, although border belt ways have been invested, they are mainly small-scale rural roads, asynchronous bridge roads, inluencing to the national defense and smuggling fighting.

In recent years, the construction of rural transportation has become a big movement, combining from the budget and contribution of population. At present, 156 over 188 communes have car roads to the center (accounting for 83%), 32 communes under 7 districts do not have car roads to center, including 18 roads with total length of 126 km and 140 bridges/6637m long.

In recent years, the investment in traffic industry has been constantly increased. However, the annual budget for maintenance is low. Therefore the roads are degrading quickly. According to economists, it is necessary for capital given priority to maintain other than to invest in building. It will bring socio-economic efficiency.

In recent years, the roadways system has been considered and invested by the province, but in general it is not extensive and synchronous, influencing to the investment attraction and socio-economic development of province.

2/.Waterway traffic:

Since 1995, the waterways network has not increased, with scale of 2.559 km. Density of waterways by area was 0,59 Km/Km² and by population was 1,8 Km/ten thousand of people with main waterways of Vam Co river, Vam Co Dong, Vam Co Tay, Rach Cat river . . .

Besides, on rural waterways, especially districts in Dong Thap Muoi, people can travel by boats from house to house, from region to region and boats are the main means of transport, means of living of many families in Dong Thap Muoi. Communes where do not have car roads to center will travel by waterways.

However, the waterways network, at present, still depends mainly on natural advantage, not developing the existing potentials, lacking in support system such as marking buoy, local waterways signal. The phenomena of appropriation of flow and way of boats, breach of protective corridors of local waterways such as construction of house and building materials yard, holding a market, etc. have not controlled properly. Many waterways have had great siltation through development in many years but they have not dredged and influenced to travel capacity of means.

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Tourists visit Tan Lap floating village.

The province has a great tourism potential with destinations, including Tan Lap floating village, Dong Thap Muoi Pharmaceutical Development and Conservation Research Center, Lang Sen Wetland Reserve, Co Son Pagoda, historical site of Vam Nhut Tao, Ong Ban Quy Temple and other historical sites and amusement parks.

Lang Sen Wetland Reserve

River cruise on Vam Co Tay and Vam Co Dong rivers will give travelers an opportunity to enjoy tropical fruit orchard gardens and discover the everyday life of the Mekong Delta region.

Chau Thanh dragon fruits

Visitors coming to Long An will have also a chance to enjoy special dishes, such as Grilled Snakehead Fish, Duc Hoa peanut,  Chau Thanh dragon fruit, Nang Thom rice in Cho Dao, De wine and among.​

Grilled Snakehead Fish

Visitor Nguyen Van Hoang from Binh Dinh province said that he is impressive with natural landscape in Tan Lap floating village and Long An's De wine.

Meanwhile countryside dishes, team building activities and peaceful space in Tan Lap floating village attract Nguyen Thi Minh Thu, a student of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

According to statistics, Long An received more than 510,000 visitors, including over 7,100 international tourists from the beginning of this year to the middle of August.

With rapidly rising arrivals in recent years, Long An province has focused on turning the tourism industry to become a key economic contributor.

Long An province has focused on developing and promoting ecotourism; cultural and religious attractions; and offering tourist products for holidays and weekends./.

Source: http://news.baolongan.vn/

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TRAFFIC ROAD: 
• To Ho Chi Minh City 22Km (26 min drive)
(Intersection Nguyen Van Linh Boulevard 

National Road 1A)
• To Tan Son Nhat Airport 45Km (69 min drive)
• Tan An City 05Km (10 min drive)
WATER WAY: 
• To Bourbon – Ben Luc Port 05 km (10 min drive)
• To Cat Lai Sea Port /SPCT 47-49 km (1h15' drive)

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​Source: Long An Economic Zone Authority (LEAZA)​

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Recently, Happyland has attracted a lot of tourists

Director of the Department of Culture-Sports and Tourism - Nguyen Anh Dung said: "Long An tourism has had many important changes over the past time; tourist destinations have been invested or called socialization. The number of tourists of the province is increasing; especially, foreign tourists are more than before. This is the result of the implementation of the tourism development program into a key economic sector of the province."

In particular, there are specific tasks and solutions for Long An tourism to become an important economic sector, creating favorable conditions to promote other fields in accordance with the orientation of the province's socio-economic development strategy.

Long An is located in a favorable position - the gateway connecting Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta provinces. Currently, the investment in the province's transportation system and national transportation networks such as Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong expressway and National Highway 1 are also conditions for the development of Long An tourism.

Especially, Long An has ecological landscapes of Dong Thap Muoi, Vam Co river landscape, historical-cultural relics, craft villages, and so on. These are potential factors for tourism development.

From Tan An City, along Vam Co Tay River, tourists can visit attractive destinations such as Tan Lap Floating Village, Lang Sen Wetland. From Ho Chi Minh City, along National Highway 1, they can visit Memorial Area of Lawyer Nguyen Huu Tho, Happyland, Vam Nhut Tao relic and Nguyen Trung Truc Temple, Ong Ban Quy Temple, etc.

In order to attract more tourists, the province is actively developing new tourism products, focusing on developing eco-tourism and forming inter-regional tours with neighboring provinces.

The province is cooperating with HTVC Cable Television to produce and broadcast the program "Check-In Vietnam" with the theme "Long An - Today Destination".

Hopefully, with the attention of the provincial leaders and the participation of businesses in tourism product development, in the coming time, Long An will attract more international as well as domestic tourists to contribute significantly to the socio-economic development of the province./.

Source: http://news.baolongan.vn 

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Happyland entertainment area has many activities to attract tourists

According to Long An Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in February 2019, tourists to Long An reached more than 450,000 people, increased 9 times over the same period of 2018. Of which, international visitors reached 2,500 turns of people, revenue reached VND 135 billion, increased more than 100% over the same period of 2018.

Vice Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism – Nguyen Thanh Thanh said that, after the Lunar New Year, tourists manly visited ecological tourism sites, cultural and historical relics of the province, especially the number of visitors to Happyland tourism area soared.

With its position as the Western gateway and the vast area of Dong Thap Muoi, Long An is a relatively new destination for near and far tourists./.

Reported by Minh Dang

​Translated by Lan Vy ​

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      The population around market area has gradually increased, Mr. Mai Tu Thua asked for permission to separate from Binh Luong Tay village and to establish new village Binh Thanh. He also donated a piece of land to build village temple – the precusor of Vinh Phong temple today. Legend has it that, Mr. Mai Tu Thua contributed a lot in the dredge of Tra Cu canal in 1892 and took part in Le Van Khoi rising up and then disappeared. Therefore, his property including the market and land was confiscated and his wife and children were exiled. Binh Thanh village was also changed as Vinh Phong village and the communal house in the village was also moved. Until the French colonialism had occupyed the South and Nguyen dynasty did not have power in the South, the people around Thu Thua market decided to raise money to build Vinh Phong communal house in 1886 and brought the votive table of Mai Tu Thua to worship with 7 Chinese characters: ''ancient sage Mai Tu Thua-Chu Thi''.

       After many times of restoration, most recently in 1998, Vinh Phong temple still reserved architectural style of late Nguyen dynasty. Currently, Vinh Phong temple is located in 1132m² area with 3 layers: stage for classical drama art, stage for practicing martial art, and central chamber facing Thu Thua canal. The central chamber was built in ancient style with 4 pillars structure, double tiled-roof, a pair of glazed terra-cotta dragons (in the position of two dragons fighting over a pearl) located on roof-top. Inside the central chamber, decoration is solemn with 2 layers of balcony, 3 altars, Long Dinh and Lo Bo. External balcony is the masterpiece of Thu Dau Mot craftsmen group dated back to Mau Ngo year (1918). Craftsmen expressed traditional themes on this balcony such as the four supernatural creatures (dragon, unicorn, tortoise and phoenix), four flowers (apricot, orchid, chrysanthemum, bamboo) and Eagle back to its nest. Above the balcony, there are wood frames structured in carved style with many patterns (Dragon and Horses, Apricot and Deer, Scrolling book, Fish becoming Dragon and Bat …very sophisticated. In front of the main altar is an ancient balcony dated Binh Tuat (1886). With the same theme of four flowers, yet details on this balcony was formed in strong lines and shapes with style of late 19^th century. The special thing about this balcony is the skillful art of vermilion and gilt. Over more than a century, yet this balcony has still been splendid as the early day. The central chamber of Vinh Phong has 2 ancient precious vermilion lacquered and gilded wood horizontal panels and 8 pairs of vertical wood panels dated Binh Tuat (1886) and Binh Thin (1916). Most of parallel sentences are written by the way that 2 first words of 2 parallel sentences are combined as name of Dinh or Thu Thua. Especially, the parallel sentences in the altar of Mai Tu Thua:

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During the course of urbanization, intensive farming. . . the environmental pollution is serious, reducing the quality of environment.

Quality of air: According to assessment of some professional organizations, the concentration of SO2, NO2, CO, lead. . . are low and satisfy the standard as stipulated. Criteria of dust and noise are many times higher than acceptable standard and focus on urban areas, populous areas and main traffic roads.

Quality of water source: on main rivers - channels such as Vam Co Dong, Vam Co Tay, Can Giuoc River . . . Tan An township has the acceptable content of Nitrate, organic substances, concentration of excess drugs, microorganism. . . . as stipulated (TCVN 5937 - 1995). Over the past years, Can Giuoc receives waste water from Ho Chi Minh City with high pollution, impacting on production and daily life of people.

Land: According to result of analysis on sample, concentration of toxic substances such as Cu, Pb, Cd . . . in mud and land is quite low and in acceptable limitation (according to Dutch standard).

Organism: with natural feature including many ecological systems of wetland: brackish water, salt water, fresh water, alum . . . organism resource of province has been assessed as being varied and diversified. During the past few years, as response to human, achievements of exploitation, utilization for production has brought many high results, but the environmental protection has not been considered deeply and synchronously, resulting in the break of the ecological balance between the populations, at the same time reducing or losing many rare and valuable wild animal such as chicken, python, snake, turtle. . . ; vegetations such as flooded cajeput forest, arenga forest, aegiceras forest, mangrove forest. . . and resulting in danger of mice destroying production.

From Japanese side, the opening ceremony had the attendance of Mr. Kawaue Junichi - Consulate General of Japan in Ho Chi Minh City; Mr. Kadowaki Keiichi - Chairman of the Japanese Business Association in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Exhibition will be organized on the scale of more than 400 standard booths of provinces, cities and enterprises in order to introduce the achievements of socio-economic achievements and tourism development of each locality; promote and introduce potentials, strengths, products and goods; develop brands; and seek partners and consumption markets.

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Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Tran Van Can spoke at the opening ceremony

Speaking at the Opening Ceremony, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Tran Van Can said that Japan is now the third largest economy in the world with much potential on science and technology which is leading in the world. Therefore, the People's Committee of Long An Province desires to continue calling for and attracting investments from Japan into such fields as hi-tech industry; hi-tech agriculture; human resource development etc.

As part of the cultural exchange activities celebrating the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Japan, which took place in Long An province, it hopes that the "Vietnam - Japan Economic, Trade and Tourism Fair, Long An in 2018" will be the opportunity for enterprises, investors to exchange and study about the cooperation opportunities as well as to introduce the typical products and strengths of Japanese enterprises inside and outside the province to consumers in Vietnam in general and in Long An Province in particular. 

Delegates are cutting the opening band of the fair

Provincial leaders are visiting booths at the fair

Vietnam - Japan Economic, Trade and Tourism Fair, Long An in 2018 will be held until October 21st, 2018.

Reported by TV

Translated by Lan Vy ​​

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Ms. Ngo Thi Phuong Lan said that Long An has great potential for agricultural tourism and is starting to exploit

According to Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ngo Thi Phuong Lan - Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Long An has great potential for agricultural tourism and is starting to exploit. Participants discussed the potentials of the province's agricultural tourism as well as the orientation on the development of enterprises.

Long An is considered to have a lot of potential because it borders Ho Chi Minh City and has a typical ecological landscape of the river region. The province has traditional craft villages that have been preserved for generations such as bamboo weaving, mat weaving, conical hat making, and so on. Some local specialties that are well known include Duc Hoa peanuts, Chau Thanh dragon fruits, Dong Thap Muoi habitat, and so on.

Agricultural tourism in Long An province is only at the beginning

Recently, some businesses have chosen their own path with outstanding features such as Dong Thap Muoi Medical Research and Conservation Development - "Endless Field"  tourist resort, Chanh Viet Trading and Investment Joint Stock Company, etc. However, all is only at the beginning.

In order to promote these advantages, the province should establish specific tourism products to connect and introduce the available potentials and advantages.

Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism - Nguyen Anh Dung said that the province is implementing specific activities to develop tourism according to the indicated orientation.

Source: https://news.baolongan.vn/