Phuoc Tich Village in Thua Thien-Hue Province has retained the features of a 500-year old Vietnamese village, being home to banyan trees, wells and temples.

The village is some 40km north of Hue City. Phuoc Tich was established in 1470 under King Le Thanh Tong. The village is located in the bend of the O Lau River, making the village resemble an island. The village has 12 river wharves symbolising the 12 animals of the lunar zodiac.

A centuries old tree marks the village gate along with a temple. The village is also home to several old houses. The houses are surrounded by large gardens fenced byChinese tea tree plants.

The homes hold old wooden furniture, horizontal lacquered boards, altars and chests with sophisticated carvings. Phuoc Tich also has dozens of pagodas and temples.

Hanoian tourist Nguyen Thi Pham was surprised by the village’s natural scenery. “I and my friends have visited several old villages, such as Duong Lam in Hanoi and Tuy Loan in Danang, but, only Phuoc Tich retains so many wooden built houses,” she said.

Phuoc Tich is also well-known for its 500-year old pottery industry. The industry was revised in 2006 when Hue Festival was launched. Local residents built a temple to worship Confucius hundreds of years ago to honour their thirst for knowledge.

Phuoc Tich is currently home to 117 households and more than 30 wooden houses which are left in the hands of the older generation to maintain. Over the past 10 years, only 99-year old Luong Thi Hen has cared for her family’s ancient wooden house. She said , “My children are away earning a living. The 100-year old house has deteriorated, and I can’t preserve it alone.”

Truong Thi Thu, 84, now lives alone in a wooden house. Every day, she cleans the house to welcome tourists. She has asked her children to return the village to help preserve the house on many occasions, but they are afraid that they wouldn’t be able to find employment if they returned.

Phong Dien District officials said the local authorities had been promoting Phuoc Tich to both local residents and visitors. The district would focus on repairing some wooden houses and also call for investment in the local pottery industry.

Phuoc Tich was recognised as a national relic in 2009 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, following Duong Lam.

Here are some of photos of Phuoc Tich:

The ancient tree aged between 700 and 800 years

The Quang Te Temple displays remnants of the Cham culture

A pottery workshop

Pottery products

A temple

O Lau River

An old house

Hen’s wooden house

A screen before an old house

Horizontal lacquer board of Duy Tan King (1909-1916) at Ho Dinh Lan’s house

Sculpture patterns

A tour guide instructing visitors

All wooden houses in Phuoc Tich were made by artisans from My Xuyen carpentry
 village which is located south of Phuoc Tich

A river wharf

Most of wooden houses are taken care of by old people

Run down house

Source:Dtinews

The ancient village of Dong Hoa Hiep in Cai Be District, Tien Giang Province in southern Vietnam is well known for its beautiful scenery formed by the calm Cai Be River and ancient houses amid orchards that are lush and laden with fruit all year round.

Along with two other ancient villages of Duong Lam in Hanoi and Phuoc Tich in Hue, Dong Hoa Hiep Village has been selected and invested in to develop into a countryside tourism model by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The way the houses were designed in Dong Hoa Hiep Village is different from that of those, which were in close proximity to each other in Duong Lam and Phuoc Tich Villages. Dong Hoa Hiep has a poetic landscape with ancient houses dotted in lush orchards that are surrounded by the winding Cai Be River. Visiting the village, tourists enjoy pure air and the peaceful scenery while rowing boats on the river or taking a stroll on paths running through shady orchards.

 The interior of the ancient house owned by Phan Van Duc is decorated in the traditional style.

One of the destinations that has left a vivid impression on tourists to Dong Hoa Hiep Village is the ancient house owned by Tran Tuan Kiet in Dong Hoa Hiep Commune. It was built around 1838 with 108 pillars made of xylia xylocarpa, a valuable and rare wood, amid a 1.8ha orchard. The house was designed in the architectural style of southern garden houses with five large rooms, covering 1,000m². Despite the devastation of time, the house has been preserved intact with refined patterns of “pine trees, daisy flowers, ivory bamboo and apricot trees” carved on wooden pillars and doors. Inside, the house now displays sets of parallels inlaid with mother-of-pearl, skillfully carved furniture and ancient ceramics.

The ancient house owned by Phan Van Duc in Dong Hoa Hiep Village was built in 1850.

Skillful sculptures at the worshiping area. 
Foreign tourists visit and learn about the history and value of the ancient house owned by Tran Tuan Kiet.
A sideboard inlaid with mother-of-pearl. 
 French oil lamps. 
The ancient house owned by Tran Tuan Kiet attracts a large number of foreign visitors.
A girl in Dong Hoa Hiep Village. 

Le Thi Chinh, the owner’s wife, said her husband’s great-grandfather was the chief of the district who was so keen on antiquities that he invited craftsmen from the imperial capital of Hue to build the house over a few years and spent a lot of time and efforts collecting many valuable ancient objects. In 2002, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) financed more than 1.8 billion VND to restore the house with the supervision of a female Japanese architect who lived in the house for over six months. Thanks to JICA’s support, the house was restored in the original architectural and interior style.
The second popular destination in Dong Hoa Hiep Village is Nguyen Van Duc’s house which was built in 1850 with a blend of Oriental and Western architecture. The front of the house was constructed in the French style with round Western pillars and romantic domes whereas the inside was designed in traditional Vietnamese style. At present, the house still preserves many rare ancient objects that demonstrate the well-off life and refined hobby of rich families in southern Vietnam in the past.
Nowadays, Dong Hoa Hiep Village is a popular destination of both domestic and foreign visitors. Each year, the village attracts almost 100,000 visitors with an increasing number of foreign tourists.

Source:Vietnam.vnanet

Annually, thousands of tourists in Vietnam travel visit Sen Village or Kim Lien Village in Nghe An not only to know more about childhood and lives of the late president Ho Chi Minh, but also to express their respect to the mighty father of Vietnamese race. 

Just 45km from the central city of Vinh, Sen village is located in Kim Lien commune, Nam Dan district, Nghe An province. The village is the birthplace of the late president Ho Chi Minh.

Like other normal rural villages in Vietnam, Sen village, also called Kim Lien village, is quite tranquil, peaceful and poetic with green bamboo, public well, temple' ground where festivals or crucial occasions of the village taking place.

 Sen Village- Nghe An

Travelers in Vietnam tourism come to this village mostly to visit the house where Uncle Ho has grown up before he traveled abroad the find the way to rescue Vietnam from colonization. The house was built by donation and effort of local residents in 1901 to celebrate high result in national examination of Uncle Ho's father Nguyen Sinh Sac. It has been preserved with almost original structure and design, with all simple objects of a Confucianism family like traditional brushes or ink boxes, and popular items that can be seen in any house in rural area such as bamboo mat, trays or rice mortar. Around the house is a lush garden with numerous green plants, including many souvenir trees grown by guests who have visited this place.

Sen village was recognised as one of the national cultural historical relics by the Ministry of Culture and Information (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) in 1979.

Kim Lien relic complex in Sen village

Incense offering at the Ho Chi Minh Memorial House

The banyan tree and the playground where uncle Ho met villagers during his visits to
 his native place in 1957 and 1961

Coc well

The hibiscus hedge

A garden in front of Nguyen Sinh Sac’s thatched cottage

The board of honour granted by King Thanh Thai to Nguyen Sinh Sac in 1901
 when he graduated as the second best examinee