Traditional culture is now being embraced by young people in new, youthful, engaging and accessible ways through craft village workshop tours. This form of experience is becoming increasingly popular, attracting many young people and tourists who can directly take part in and create traditional handmade products themselves. More importantly, these activities help preserve and spread cultural and historical values while honoring the craftsmanship and dedication of people in traditional villages. ​

With its potential and advantages in natural resources, local culture, traditional craft villages, and agricultural and fishing livelihoods, regional zoning linked with eco-tourism and community-based tourism (CBT) development orientations will help promote sustainable tourism growth in Hue.

Hue is a land that bears the imprint of the southward migration and territorial expansion undertaken more than 700 years ago by the people of ancient Thuan Hoa. Very few documents reveal the timing of these migration waves or the organization and formation of Vietnamese villages in the region. Yet during fieldwork, I gained access to several ancient Han-Nom documents recording the migration, land reclamation, and establishment of villages and communes. Most notably is a cadastral record dating to the 9th year of the Dai Hoa reign (1451) under King Le Nhan Tong, compiled exactly 575 years ago.

Within the cultural complex of Hue, if the system of palaces and royal tombs defines the face of an Imperial capital, the villages along the lagoon and coastline preserve the depth of community life. There, heritage does not lie dormant in the past but lives on in every festival season, every daily custom, and every belief tied to the natural environment. The Cau Ngu Festival of Thai Duong village, held once every three years in January at the Thuan An seaport, is precisely such a heritage - a vibrant cultural practice where community memory, maritime knowledge, and the will to survive have woven together into an enduring whole across hundreds of years.

On March 7, the City’s Women’s Union organized the “Brilliant March” Festival, featuring a series of meaningful activities, including a mass dance performance, the “Golden Bell Challenge” contest on the Law on Elections of the National Assembly and People’s Councils and Party Congress resolutions at all levels, the “Colors of Traditional Craft Villages” exhibition, along with various engaging communication activities…

Before flowing into neighboring Laos, the A Sap River gathers alluvial deposits that enrich the riverbanks, creating a vast watershed for the A Luoi region. From this advantage, “fishermen” in the highlands have developed capture fisheries and aquaculture, contributing to the formation of a riverside community - future prosperous “fishing villages” along the river.

No one has captured the Vietnamese sense of living away from one’s homeland better than poet Nguyen Khoa Diem when he wrote: “They carry the names of their communes and villages on every migration journey.” In the highland city on the Lang Biang Plateau, this sentiment holds true as well. Many people from Hue left their ancestral land to settle here nearly a century ago. Though four or five generations have now been born on this new land, the “Hue spirit” in these distant Hue communities has never faded.

While not as large-scale or bustling as many famous flower villages in the North and the South such as Sa Dec (Dong Thap), Cai Mon (Vinh Long), Nhat Tan, Tay Tuu (Hanoi), or Thai Phien (Lam Dong)…, the flower villages supplying Tet flowers in Hue remain vibrant and deeply imbued with local cultural identity.

Among the approximately 70 traditional villages living on practicing crafts in Hue, the craft of making parasols is a special one. Beyond the meticulous craftsmanship required in the crafting process, this craft is also special because the finished products carry profound symbolic value in the local cultural life. Far exceeding their practical function of shielding from sun and rain, the parasols serve as markers of order, ritual, and reverence.

Over the past few days, people from villages across Dan Dien Commune have been encouraging one another to visit the floating fish farms along the Bo River to buy fish in support of local farmers. Some families bought a few fish, others only one, but everyone said the same thing: “It’s just our way of sharing a little of their hardship”. That’s all they could do, as the recent floods had wiped out tens of tons of fish raised by families living along the Bo River.