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HEADING SOUTH
Next I made my way to the Van
Phuc silk village, just 10km from the
city center. This is a perfect place for
shopping, with a wide range of tradi-
tional silk cloth, clothes, scarves and
other accessories, all made with col-
ourful patterns to a high standard and
with reasonable prices. The village is
proud to be home to the best silk and
silk-making industry of Vietnam, with
a long-lasting history of more than two
thousand years. Although it has seen
ups and downs in recent years, the
village’s craft has enjoyed a revival of
late, due to a surging demand for silk
in both the domestic and foreign mar-
kets. Silk is currently enjoying a fashion
renaissance, particularly since its many
varieties can be made into a wide range
of designs suitable for all facets of mod-
ern life.
I continued my trip to Chuong vil-
lage, which produces one of the most
prominent symbols of Vietnamese
beauty – the
non la
, or conical hat. For
nearly four hundred years, the small
village, 40km west of Hanoi and 25km
from Van Phuc, has been making coni-
cal hats in vast quantities. An estimated
70 per cent of the local population of
about 4,000 households earns a living
from the trade . Each day, the village
produces around 15,000 hats, ensuring
a stable life for local labourers. Older
artisans run free classes to teach young
people more about the craft.
The conical hats are made with a
bamboo frame, covered by palm leaves
and tied with rattan strings (these days
industrial thread is also used). Chuong
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RED RIVER DELTA TOURISM
DELTA
Riding buffalo cart in Bat Trang pottery village
Conical hat making at Chuong village