Pho Hien

Many Vietnamese people know the old-day saying "The Capital ranks first, Pho Hien ranks second". The Capital is present Hanoi city and Pho Hien is present Hung Yen town of Hung Yen province, 60km away from Hanoi. Starting from Hanoi, take National Highway 5 to Pho Noi, then turn to National Highway 39A, running through rice and corn fields and through luxuriant gardens of longan trees to finally reach Pho Hien.

Pho Hien had become a commercial port since the 13^th century. Merchant ships from China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, England and France had anchored at Pho Hien since the 15^th century.

In the 13th century, Pho Hien was known to traders as a busy river port establishment. Two centuries later, merchants coming from China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Britain and France developed Pho Hien into a bustling economic hub. However, due to changes in the Red River's current and the silting up of port water, Pho Hien was moved more than two kilometers inland. As a result, Pho Hien changed from being one of the most bustling trading centers in the North of Vietnam to a small town with old and nostalgic traits. Although Pho Hien is not as crowded and busy as before, it retains an old architectural complex with nearly 60 historical and cultural relics, 100 stone stelae and many pagodas and temples.

Pho Hien locals are proud not only of their old prosperous days, but also of the famous fruit, longan. This is a precious strain, so the locals always use a small bamboo-woven basket to protect the fruit from the birds, right from when the fruit sprouts out. "Caged" longan has thick sweet pulp, thin peel, and small seed. In the past, Pho Hien longan was reserved as tribute to the king and very few people could afford to taste it. Legend says that the oldest longan tree in the yard of Hien Pagoda (ancestral longan tree) has existed since the 16th century. Now it retains only one luxuriant branch with great vitality.

Coming to Pho Hien, visitors should not forget to visit Pho Hien market – a rural one that is total calm as the water surface of Ban Nguyet (Semicircle) Lake in central Pho Hien.