Located to the west of Hanoi Capital City, about 40 km from the city center, Duong Lam is an ideal destination when you are looking for somewhere off the beaten in Hanoi. You can visit the village during weekday or at weekend depending on your own available time. Thus, what awaits you in a Duong Lam Village day trip? Keep on exploring in the following parts.
Contents
1. About Duong Lam Village – the homeland of two Vietnam’s Kings:
In the last article, we have introduced to you a Hanoi handicraft village tour to discover lotus silk from Vietnam. In this article, we’ll learn about another special village in Hanoi – Duong Lam Ancient Village – known as the homeland of two Vietnam’s Kings to diverse your experience in your Hanoi tours.
Duong Lam Ancient Village belong to Son Tay District in the west of Hanoi, about 40 km from Hanoi City center. Duong Lam is widely well-known as the homeland of two Vietnam’s Kings including King Ngo Quyen and King Phung Hung. Duong Lam Village can still preserve the authentic features of a typical village in the northern part of Vietnam characterized with banyan trees, wells and communal yards and more importantly 956 traditional houses with the oldest houses dating back to 17th century. In 2006, Duong Lam became the very first ancient village in Vietnam which was honored as the National Historical Relic.
We suggest you keep reading this 5 traditional trade villages in Hanoi for more interesting information.
2. Highlights of Duong Lam Village day trip:
1. Mong Phu Village’s gate:
This is the only ancient gate left to these days in Duong Lam. The village gate was built from the time of the later Le dynasty, with a different architectural style compared to the traditional village gate, like a house with two sloping roofs, a main pillar to support the roof, and a roof top with the “upper house” style (above is home, below is the gate). Mong Phu Gate with banyan tree, water wharf, lotus pond creates a typical scenery of the old northern village.
2. Mong Phu Village’s Temple:
Mong Phu Village’s temple was built nearly 380 years ago on a central land of the village, about 1800 m2 wide. The design of the temple was inspired by Vietnamese – Muong architecture, simulating the architecture of stilt houses with wooden floors. It consists of two palaces and harem. The big house was erected by 48 wooden pillars. On each pillar, there is an engraving station with many dragon and phoenix-shaped patterns.
Inside the temple, there are lots of horizontal lacquered boards. The most prominent boards include the horizontal boards of “The old dragon teaches his children” and the one with 4 words “Dung – Cam – Ca – Tuong” by King Thanh Thai. The temple also preserves many special values of architecture and culture.
3. Officer Giang Van Minh’s memorial house:
The memorial house was built from the time of King Tu Duc to worship and remember the merits of Giang Van Minh, the Detective. The house faces to the south, has the architecture in the shape of “Nhi” (in Chinese language). Today, the memorial house becomes an attraction for tourists who would like to learn about history and culture of the village, and also a place to educate the patriotic tradition for the younger generation.
4. Ancient houses in the village:
There are 956 ancient houses in Duong Lam Village which were erected in 1649, 1703 and 1850. These houses were made of traditional materials such as laterite, wood from chinaberry trees, bamboo, terracotta, tile and followed 5 or 7 compartment-architecture.
5. Duong Lam Ancient Well:
In the past, village wells were places where people fetched water daily. The old well here is located in a high and airy place, near the villagers’ house, temple or in the center of the village.
6. Phung Hung Temple:
One of the places we should never miss out in our Duong Lam Village day trip is to visit the temple of the two Viet’s kings. Phung Hung Temple was established in many places but the temple in Duong Lam village is the largest temple with unique architecture including Ta – Huu Mac, Dai Bai and Hau Cung.
7. Ngo Quyen’s mausoleum:
About 500 m from Phung Hung Temple is Ngo Quyen Mausoleum. Ngo Quyen’s Mausoleum complex was built on Cam Hill, in front of it is a large rice field and puddle flowing to To Tich River. The complex consists of a worship place, a great palace, a harem, a stelae house. At the bottom, about 100 m away from the temple is the King Ngo Quyen’s mausoleum built in the form of 4 high and wall-mounted roofs.
3. Best time to take a Duong Lam Village day trip:
It is said that you can visit Duong Lam at any time during the year. However, the most suitable times are in its festival time and harvest time.
1. Festival time:
Festival time in Duong Lam Village takes place in January according to lunar calendar. The traditional festival of Mong Phu Village happens from the 4th to the 10th, considered the most sacred ceremony of the year. The ceremony of God’s village is held at the oldest communal house with activities of procession, pig and chicken offering, etc. After that, the villagers will participate in folk games such as human flags, Chinese chess, fighting, using blindfold to catch chicken and duck creating such a festive and joyful atmosphere.
6 days later, the festival of Dong Sang Village will be organized, praying for national peace, with many interesting activities such as lion dance, water procession and sacrifice ceremony. The procession starts from the communal house to the bank of the Red River with dragons, unicorns, horses, flags lasting for nearly a day. Coming to Duong Lam during this time, you will enjoy the festive atmosphere and enjoy the special food that is only available in the festival.
2. Rice harvesting time:
When May and June come, it signals the time for harvesting rice when we see the whole rice fields turning into a golden yellow color. This time also welcomes a lot of visitors coming to Duong Lam Village. The roads in Duong Lam are full of paddy and dried straw, creating a peaceful and tranquil village scene.
4. What to buy in Duong Lam Village to bring home?
Rice cake:
Rice cake in Duong Lam has many differences compared to that of other regions. People put fillings of minced pork meat and mushroom, then use dong leaves (the same leaf to wrap “chung cake”) to wrap the cake.
Filling candy, peanut candy, sesame candy:
Locals use the rustic ingredients such as peanuts, sugar, malt, sesame and rice flour to make these candies. When eating, you will feel the sweet aroma and the taste of sesame and peanuts.
Soybean sauce:
Another specialty we can bring home from our Duong Lam Village day trip is the scrumptious soybean sauce made from high-quality and golden soybean cultivated in the village.
5. How to get to Duong Lam Village from Hanoi City – Duong Lam Village day trip:
The distance from Hanoi City to Duong Lam Village is about 40 km. In order to get to the place, you can choose either take a public bus, grab a taxi or motor-taxi (xe om in Vietnamese), take a coach or refer to a private transfer service from local travel agent.
1. By public bus:
There are four public buses delivering you to Duong Lam Village. You can take either Bus No.71, No.73 and No.89.
Bus No. 71: My Dinh Bus Station – Son Tay Bus Station, ticket price at VND 20,000
Bus No. 73: My Dinh Bus Station – Thay Pagoda, ticket price at VND 10,000
Bus No. 89: Yen Nghia Bus Station – Son Tay Bus Station, ticket price at VND 9,000.
Visit the homepage of Hanoi Public Transportation for detailed information.
2. By taxi / motor taxi:
Another way is that you can take a taxi or a motor-taxi (xe om). The transfer may take you 1 hour.
3. By coach:
If you want to find a bit faster option, you can take a coach with the route from My Dinh – Phu Tho to get to Duong Lam Village. The journey takes you about 1.5 hours.
4. By private transfer service:
Other option you can refer to is book a private transfer service from local travel agent like GoAsiaDayTrip. The company will send the driver to pick you up at your hotel and transfer you to Duong Lam Village.
We hope that you will find this article useful when searching and planning for a Duong Lam Village day trip.
If you love exploring more trade villages in Hanoi, let’s pay a visit to Tho Ha Pottery Village.
1 Comment