About the word 'zinc' in 'Hon Kem Da Dung'

* Last summer, I had the opportunity to visit Van Long lagoon, Ninh Binh province. I saw two mountain ranges called Kem Tram located at the end of the journey on the surface of the lagoon. Please tell us, what is the difference between "Kem Tram" here and "Hon Kem Da Dung" in Quang Nam? (Chau Nguyen, Son Tra, Da Nang).

* Last summer, I had the opportunity to visit Van Long lagoon, Ninh Binh province. I saw two mountain ranges called Kem Tram located at the end of the journey on the surface of the lagoon. Please tell us, what is the difference between "Kem Tram" here and "Hon Kem Da Dung" in Quang Nam? (Chau Nguyen, Son Tra, Da Nang).

Rocky cliffs like great walls reflect in the water in Kem Tram, Ninh Binh province. Photo: V.T.L

- Van Long Lagoon is located in Gia Vien district, Ninh Binh province, is the largest flooded nature reserve in the Northern Delta, not a natural beauty. Around 1960, a dike more than 30km long was built on the left bank to control Day River water, turning Van Long into a wetland of up to 3,500 hectares. Plain land becomes lagoons, rocky mountains become overlapping islands connected by winding paths or flooded caves. This place has Kem Tram Bay, a wide stretch of water surrounded by two steep cliffs standing straight like a gate.

According to Thanh Nien Newspaper's description in the article "Ninh Binh: Van Long eco-tourism destination", Kem Tram has two mountain ranges standing up like parallel darts stuck between the sky and water. When the boat entered the bay, the wind and waves made the boatman's steering wheel unsteady. Over the past thousand years, waves crashing and wind blowing have carved into the mountainside to form caves and rock roofs up to ten meters deep. Sunlight reflects on the cliffs and water, creating strange colors.

On the border between Nong Son and Hiep Duc districts, Quang Nam province, there is also a famous charming mountainous area called Hon Kem Da Dung. The mountain is named "Hon Kem" to refer to the terrain here, "on both sides are steep cliffs, in the middle is a river". "Zinc" is taught by Professor Le Ngoc Tru in his "Vietnamese orthography": "Zinc is a slit, a narrow path, with mountains on both sides." (This book was first printed by Thanh Tan Publishing House in Saigon in 1959 and won a literary award in the editing department).

The Vietnamese travel search website (Start Up version) (vi.alongwalker.co) offers a comparison of Hon Kem Da Dung among the overall tourist attractions of the same category in Quang Nam. Accordingly, compared in terms of altitude with other mountains in the province such as Ba Na mountain (Hoa Vang district, Da Nang city), Hon Tau (Que Son district, Quang Nam province), Hon Ba (Bac Tra My district, Quang Nam province), Hon Kem is in the junior category, but it is well known and often mentioned in the press for two reasons.

Firstly, due to the location and majestic stance of the rocky cliffs like a great wall reflecting on the large Thu Bon river with its own rare beauty, anyone who has once sailed past it will find it difficult to forget. In the midlands, the river flowing between the two sides of the hills and mountains is a common and familiar image; But since ancient times, the water source of the river upstream flowing to Hon Kem has broken through the mountain range, opening a way to escape downstream. Taking a boat through here (there is no road), visitors feel like they are stuck between two sides of high, steep cliffs on a stretch of river many kilometers long.

Second, I don't know when, the image of Hon Kem is portrayed in a lyrical folk song that is classified as one of the best folk songs of Quang region that many people know by heart: "Looking up at Hon Kem Da Dung / I love my father and miss my mother so much, my friend!

Taking a boat trip through Kem Tram or Hon Kem Da Dung, visitors can admire the endless mountain scenery and the lush green of the blooming leaf buds, especially when spring comes. Therefore, people who like to travel here and there compare Hon Kem Da Dung as a "miniature Ninh Binh".

Ninh Binh 1046 view

Update day : 06/11/2023