Only about 7km from Hue city center, Thuy Xuan incense village is located on Huyen Tran Cong Chua street (Thuy Xuan ward, Hue city). Along with Vong Canh Hill, Tu Duc Tomb, this hundred-year-old landmark connects and creates an attractive tourist route and experience that visitors should not miss.
The first attraction of Thuy Xuan incense village comes from their “bamboo flowers”. They are not the usual red, yellow, and pink dyed bamboo flowers that are often bought by Hue people for worship purposes on the first days of the year.
These “bamboo flowers” refers to the collections of incense bamboo sticks that are dried, chopped, carefully sharpened and to be covered with incense powder. To preserve them for a long-time, avoid termites and add more cozy colors, the ‘legs’ of the incense sticks are dyed red, grouped together into large bundles and spread out under the sun to get dried.
Over time, along with the increasing tastes of tourists, the people here have adapted the making of the incense sticks so that, in addition to red, the incense sticks are now dyed with new, eye-catching colors such as yellow, blue, and purple. Therefore, on warm sunny days, dozens of shelves light up the road leading to Vong Canh hill with colorful colors.
Check-in at Thuy Xuan incense village
Instead of colorful name plates, the villagers have, wonderfully, turned the "bamboo flowers" into their very own brand identity.
Arranged in circles, arches or putting in-between the fragrant flowers in various ways, each house on Huyen Tran Cong Chua street has become a small gallery, brighten up an entire road with brilliance, that used to be quiet and reserved, hidden itself under the green trees.
Fascinated by the beauty of the “bamboo flowers”, Kim Anh, a fourth-year student at Hue University of Education, shared: “It is my love for the colors here that I want to preserve the image of my youth in Thuy Xuan incense village. Without too many accessories, maybe just a fan, or Hue conical hat, I already have my favorite set of photos. With only the bamboo flowers, colors and intentional arrangement of the artisans here, it is already a poetic, brilliant and romantic scene in itself”.
Not only attracted by the colors, people also come to Thuy Xuan incense village to immerse themselves in the illusory space between reality and belief. In addition to witnessing first-hand the stages to produce a complete incense stick, with their own hands, tourists can experience how to make incense themselves, creating batches of aromatic incense sticks from ingredients such as cinnamon, lemongrass and agarwood...
Therefore, at first, Thuy Xuan incense village might have grown by itself thanks to the number of tourists visiting Tu Duc Tomb and Vong Canh Hill. But later on, with its distinct colors and charms, Thuy Xuan incense village has become a place marked in the notebooks of tourists, whether they are in their young or old age.
During the pandemic, it is impossible for tourists to come to Hue, nevertheless, domestic guests as well as locals are still checking-in at Thuy Xuan village. Thus, service workers and even the artisans continue to maintain and take good care of Thuy Xuan incense village so as to always retain its beauty in timeless photo frames.
If you do not have yet to own a set of shimmering photos at Thuy Xuan incense village, it would be a greatly missed opportunity. Let’s not waste any more time and visit Thuy Xuan incense village with haste today.
Story: Mai Hue. Photos: Tuan Kiet