Ninh Hoa Town, Khanh Hoa Province recently held its third flower boat festival and boat race on Dinh River. The event created an exciting and joyful atmosphere for local people and tourists on 2021 Lunar New Year occasion.
Ninh Hoa Town, Khanh Hoa Province recently held its third flower boat festival and boat race on Dinh River. The event created an exciting and joyful atmosphere for local people and tourists on 2021 Lunar New Year occasion.
Festive atmosphere on Dinh River
On the day of the event, the atmosphere on Dinh River from Chi Tru Dam to Dinh 1 Bridge (Ninh Hiep Ward) became more vibrant than usual. From the early morning, thousands of locals and tourists gathered at Dinh River to see and cheer for the competitors. The event was organized in compliance with the regulations and measures to prevent COVID-19. Dang Huu Phuong, a spectator from Dong Nai Province, and his friends had learned about the flower boat festival and boat race of Ninh Hoa Town and arranged time during their Lunar New Year travel to come and see the event. “The festival was simple, but it still presented many unique features of Khanh Hoa Province,” said Phuong.
|
The flower boat contest featured the march of 12 flower boats of the localities in the town. The small boats, which are often used by local people to travel on rivers and lakes for fishing and aquaculture, were transformed into splendid boats with beautifully colorful flowers. The most exciting and most awaited section of the event was the boat race. The race attracted the participations of 120 people from 17 wards and communes over Ninh Hoa Town. The competitors competed in kayak race and traditional boat race in six categories: men’s doubles kayak, mixed doubles kayak, men’s single traditional boat, men’s doubles traditional boat, women’s doubles traditional boat, and mixed doubles traditional boat. The competitors had to paddle kayaks and traditional boats on a distance of 700m. The rousing cheer from the spectators made the competitions more animated and exciting. According to Vo Vu Hoa, a member of Ninh Son Ward team, although the boats were familiar to the competitors, it still required skills and synchronicity and cooperation between paddlers to make the boats move fast.
Making the event a tourism product
Dinh River has long been attached to the life of Ninh Hoa people. Ninh Hoa Town first organized the flower boat festival and boat race in 2013 and held the second one in 2015. The events attracted the interest and were well received by many locals and tourists. The locality chose the river section from Chi Tru Dam to Dinh 1 Bridge to organize the flower boat festival and boat race in order to commemorate Hero of the People’s Armed Forces Nguyen Thi Tru (born in Ninh Hoa in 1925), who scarified her life in the resistance war against the French colonialists.
With the success of the third flower boat festival and boat race on Dinh River, Ninh Hoa Town will consider making this event an annual one and a local unique tourism product, according to Phan Thanh Liem, Vice-Chairman of Ninh Hoa Town People's Committee.
In order to develop local tourism, apart from investing in sea tourism products in Doc Let and Ninh Van, etc., Ninh Hoa Town has promoted mountain tourism products such as Ba Ho and Truong Xuan Hot Mineral Spring. Especially, the town has paid special attention to restore cultural activities (Ede people's river wharf worship ceremony, Bai Choi game, etc.) and promote them as tourism products. Hopefully, the efforts of Ninh Hoa Town will help tourists have interesting experiences when visiting here.
Giang Đinh
Translated by H.N
