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Along with Cuc Phuong National Forest, Ba Vi National Park is thought of as the natural “air - conditioner” or “green lungs” of the northern delta and the city of Hanoi within. Ba Vi is located in Ba Vi District, Ha Tay Province, 60 km west of Hanoi. It was elevated to national park status on December 18, 1991.
In the middle stands Mount Ba Vi, a three-humped peak that rises steeply out of a plain rarely exceeding 30 metres in elevation. In general, the slopes on the western side are steeper than the east and average 25 degrees, but above 400 metres they reach a gradient of 35 degrees in places and rocky cliffs are present. The three summits are Vua, the tallest at 1,296 metres, Tan Vien 1,227m and Ngoc Hoa 1,131 m. Because of the mountainous topography, the climate at Ba Vi varies with altitude and mist enshrouds the peak’s upper slopes on most days. Except for the Da River on the western side of the national park, Ba Vi has no large, permanent water bodies.
Covering 11,372 hectares, the park is a primitive forest with thousands of giant trees hundreds of years old. There, natural forest is mainly distributed at elevations above 600 metres. The native plants are lowland evergreens, lower mountain evergreens and lower mountain mixed coniferous and broadleaf forest. Ba Vi boasts 812 species of vascular plants, of which several species were described for the first time from the site, for example Ixora balansae, Litsea baviensis and Lasianthus langkokensis, as well as 776 species of mammals, reptiles, birds and amphibians.
The area is also home to hundreds of relics dating back a century or more to the French colonial era, like the old military training range and the church. The park is well known as a beauty spot called “Tan Mountain and the Da River” and also known for thousands of years as the origin of the legend Son Tinh Thuy Tinh (mountain god sea god).
The legend goes that King Hung wanted an outstanding husband for his daughter Ngoc Hoa, also called My Nuong, so he told the two likeliest candidates, Son Tinh and Thuy Tinh, to come up with precious offerings like a nine-tusked elephant, a nine-spurred fighting cock and a horse with nine pink manes. Son Tinh brought them first and so was promised My Nuong’s hand in marriage. Arriving late, Thuy Tinh became angry and used magic to raise the ocean and cause a devastating flood in order to kill Son Tinh. But the successful suitor countered the flood by raising the mountain and helping the locals combat the rising waters. Nowadays you can see the traces said to be those of Thuy Tinh’s flood near the site on Tan Vien where stands a shrine built in the 11th century to commemorate the Mountain God, or Saint Tan Vien, one of the immortals in the mythology of the Vietnamese people of yore.
At Ba Vi there is also a village of the Dao people, one of the north’s numerous ethnic minorities. A visit there will give you some understanding of the Dao’s way of life and the chance to dine on a delicacy based on bamboo shoots.
With its great natural beauty as well as diverse and abundant biological systems, Ba Vi National Park is ideal for tourists and researchers. The park’s Environmental Education and Ecotourism Service Center operates several informative guided tours to different parts of Ba Vi.
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