In the early morning sunlight, the pear gardens with pure white flowers in Hong Thai commune (Na Hang) are as beautiful as a giant crystal strip, captivating visitors. The warm spring weather is also the time when the pear garden blooms at its fullest and most beautiful. Whether the weather is hazy due to thick fog or clear blue and sunny, being immersed in the beautiful pear gardens in Hong Thai gives us a wonderful feeling that we don't want to leave.
In the past, plum trees grew wild in the forest. The fruit was not big, the color was not eye-catching, but it was delicious because of its sour taste, crispy skin and strong sweetness. Thuong Lam girls are charming, gentle, willing to work hard. The natural beauty of Tay girls and their hands to spin cotton, weave fabrics, and embroider brocade have created the age-old cultural beauty of the people here. Surprisingly, the two lands are hundreds of kilometers apart, but the song still brings people and nature closer together. The song makes people more proud and love the nature and people of Tuyen's mountainous region.
Plums and pears have existed since ancient times in Hong Thai, a land of many white clouds, many high mountains and several degrees colder than other areas of Tuyen Quang. Residents living on high mountain slopes and farming on terraced fields are mainly Dao Tien people. There are also Mong and Tay people. Their creative and diligent labor from generation to generation has carved a picture of their mountainous homeland.
For a long time, plums and pears were just things to eat, entertain guests, and give to relatives and friends. Very rarely is it a commodity product. The tree lives humbly on hillsides or mountain slopes. Spring comes, each tree has its own look, offering the world a season of pure, white flowers. It seems that only when the tree wears new clothes, people are startled to think of the tree, of the cycle of creation. Over the past decade, as tourism has developed, pears and plums have become the highlight of this land. Especially when Hong Thai Terraced Fields was recognized as a National Landscape, pear trees were focused on growing and taking care of people.
Pear forests with several hectares of land and hundreds of trees are cared for, pruned, and invested in watering systems. An entire road of pear flowers, up to 6 km long, with nearly 1,000 trees, from Khau Trang village to Na Mu village. Just a few days ago, people planted pears along the winding concrete road, but now pears have bloomed white flowers all over the sky.
The tree trunks and branches of pears have white mold and rough patches of symbiotic lichen, and have cracked clusters of beautiful little buds. They huddled, crowded together, sparkling like the silver beams of Dao girls. Thousands of tiny raindrops, resting lightly on thin wings. Clouds and mist like veils also come here to reside. The milky white sky crept lower. They carry moisture to the plant. Under the tree, the grass has just grown green. The white of the flowers, the green of the grass, it seems they are racing with Spring. Many tourists suddenly uttered the poem of the great poet Nguyen Du: "The young green grass creeps up the horizon/The white pear branch is dotted with a few flowers."
The end of February and beginning of March is when the weather is in full bloom. Each flower branch, intertwined with each other, resembles a white bridge hanging in the air. On the flower beds, bees were busy searching for honey, accidentally pollinating and bearing fruit for the trees. When the gardener whitewashed each tree stump, the pear tree now looked like a Dao girl wearing white leggings, just stepping out of the Khau Trang fields. Here and there, next to the pear tree are patches of moldy rocks and moss growing around. Standing stones, lying around the base. Strangely enough, the hard, dry thing blends with the pure, clear pear flower.
Wandering around the village, we will encounter yin and yang tile roofs. The Dao people's house is spacious and warm like your heart. The houses are close together, at the back of the mountain, at different heights, clustered together into villages. People share the same water source. Water flows from high mountains all year round, gurgling to the village, then distributed to every house. Water to cool garden plants and fields. Pear flowers light up the deep tiled roof, or does the tiled roof make the pear blossoms shine? The costumes of the Dao Tien people are the same, amidst the dark indigo color, the bright spots of silver buttons stand out. As time passed, the pear silently grew, until it was harvested, humble again in its simple brown color.
You can go up the mountain slope to explore ancient Shan Tuyet tea trees. The age of the tree is up to a hundred years. To harvest tea, people have to climb trees, vine branches, and pick buds. The outer bark of the tree trunk is white mold. There are trees that I can't wrap my arms around. In cold weather, tea trees have to wear an extra layer of warm clothing, which is a layer of patchy lichen. Tea overcomes cold dew and cold wind, leaving it for buds all year round.
Tuyen Quang
February to March
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