Hai Duong
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Hai Duong is the province between Hanoi and Hai Phong that nobody stops in. It holds two of the older sites in the north, plus the sweet every Vietnamese child recognises.
What is at Con Son?
A pagoda in a pine forest, and the memory of Nguyen Trai. He was the strategist behind the fifteenth-century revolt that ended Ming rule, and then a poet. He retired to Con Son to write, and in 1442 his family was executed on a charge later overturned.
The site is a stepped climb through old pines to a hilltop shrine, past a stone-bedded stream and the pagoda itself. It takes two hours at an unhurried pace, and the pines are the reason to be slow. They are in his most quoted poem, which is why Vietnamese visitors arrive already knowing what they are looking at.
What is Kiep Bac?
The temple of Tran Hung Dao, a few kilometres from Con Son, on the ground where he based himself during the Mongol wars. He turned back three invasions between 1258 and 1288, the last of them at the Bach Dang river not far from here.
The temple is worked rather than preserved: incense, offerings, a queue at the altar, and a steady traffic of families asking for something specific. He is treated as a saint as much as a general, which makes this a working shrine rather than a monument.
| What | Where | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Con Son pagoda | Chi Linh, 35 km from the city | Two hours | Pines, stream, stepped climb |
| Kiep Bac temple | 5 km from Con Son | An hour | Tran Hung Dao, working shrine |
| Spring festival | Both sites | Two weeks | First and second lunar months |
| Autumn festival | Kiep Bac | A week | Eighth lunar month |
| Banh dau xanh | Shops in the city | Twenty minutes | Buy it where it is made |
What is banh dau xanh?
Mung bean, sugar and a little oil, pressed into small dry cubes and boxed in paper. It dissolves on the tongue rather than being chewed, it is very sweet, and it is unforgiving without tea beside it.
Hai Duong has made it since the early twentieth century and the province's name is on the box in every station kiosk in Vietnam. Buying it here is cheaper and fresher than anywhere else, which is the practical reason the province appears on so many road trips.
Are the festivals worth timing a trip around?
For a visitor, only if the crowds are the attraction. Con Son and Kiep Bac hold festivals in the first two lunar months and again in the eighth. Both fill with tens of thousands of pilgrims from across the north.
Outside them both sites are quiet enough to hear the pines. The festivals guide covers how the lunar dates move, and the Tet guide explains the season the spring festival belongs to.
What is the city like?
An industrial town with wide roads, a market and no particular reason to stay. Hai Duong city sits on the highway and the railway between the capital and the port. It has grown around factories rather than around anything a visitor came for.
Sleep in the city only if the timing forces it. Rooms are business hotels at the bottom of the bands in the accommodation guide, and the sites are 35 km away in Chi Linh.
Is Hai Duong a stop or a detour?
As a stop, not a destination. Hanoi is 60 km and an hour west; Hai Phong is 45 km and forty minutes east, and Cat Ba beyond that.
Anyone driving to the coast can take Con Son and Kiep Bac as a three-hour detour without losing a day. Anyone on the train between the two cities can do it only by staying a night, which is a lot to ask of this province.
What else is in the province?
An Phu and the ceramics at Chu Dau, a kiln site revived after excavation found its fifteenth-century export ware in collections from Istanbul to Jakarta. It is a modern workshop on an old site rather than a living tradition.
Beyond that: rice, factories and the litchi orchards of Thanh Ha. They are worth a detour in June when the fruit is on and nothing at all in December, and the fruit guide covers the calendar.
FAQ
Is Hai Duong worth visiting?
Hai Duong is worth a half day on the road between Hanoi and Hai Phong, for the Con Son and Kiep Bac sites rather than for the city. It is an industrial province that almost no foreign visitor stops in, and the two sites are genuinely old.
What is Con Son?
Con Son is a pagoda under old pines in the hills of Chi Linh, associated with the fifteenth-century scholar and strategist Nguyen Trai, who lived and wrote there. A stone stream, a stepped path and a hilltop shrine make up the site.
What is Kiep Bac?
Kiep Bac is the temple of Tran Hung Dao, the general who turned back three Mongol invasions in the thirteenth century, built on the ground where he had his headquarters. It sits a few kilometres from Con Son and the two are visited together.
What is Hai Duong famous for?
Banh dau xanh, the mung bean cake sold in small paper cubes at every station and airport in the country. The province has made it since the early twentieth century, and a box of it is the standard gift brought back from the north.
How do you get to Hai Duong?
About 60 km east of Hanoi, an hour by road on the expressway towards Hai Phong, with buses through the day. Trains on the Hanoi to Hai Phong line stop in the city, which is the rare Vietnamese branch line that still carries passengers usefully.
When is the best time to visit?
The festival weeks draw the crowds: Con Son and Kiep Bac hold spring festivals around the first and second lunar months and an autumn festival in the eighth. Outside those, October to April is dry and the pines are the point.