Hanoi's tourism sector will help My Duc District on the outskirts of Hanoi to turn Huong Pagoda into a national tourist area, according to the city's tourism department.

"Hanoi's Huong Pagoda is a cultural and religious complex that includes many pagodas, temples and communal houses. The pagoda is also one of 11 special national relics in Vietnam. These are great values for the development of cultural and spiritual tourism in the Huong Pagoda complex," said a source from the Hanoi Department of Tourism.

Tourists at the Huong Pagoda relics complex during the 2023 Tet festival. Photos: Hoai Nam/The Hanoi Times

In recent years, in order to attract tourists, the management of Huong Pagoda relics has been innovated, focusing on preserving the value of the relics and landscape and harnessing it for festive activities and services. In 2023, Huong Pagoda welcomed more than one million visitors.

"In the coming period, the Hanoi Department of Tourism and the My Duc District People's Committee will define tasks to make the complex a high-quality tourist attraction that meets the requirements to be recognised as a national tourist area," the source added.

"By 2030, the Huong Pagoda complex will become a national tourism area, one of the tourism centers of the capital and the whole country, and will apply to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site," according to the Department.

Visitors at Yen Stream in Huong Pagoda during the 2023 festival season.

About 60 kilometers southwest of downtown Hanoi, the Huong Pagoda scenic spot, which was listed as a national relics site in December 2017, gives visitors the feeling of being lost in a fairyland.

A pilgrimage to the Huong Pagoda complex during the Lunar New Year  is a spiritual journey to the land of Buddhism. Visitors tour the pagodas, temples and caves and take part in ceremonies to seek the blessings of Buddha.

Built at the end of the 17th century, the Huong Pagoda complex is a mosaic of pagodas, temples and caves full of stunning stalactites and stalagmites.

Spring is an ideal time to visit the pagoda. Visitors have the chance to experience the exuberant atmosphere of a spring festival in a beautiful landscape.

The three-month Huong Pagoda Festival, the longest of its kind in Vietnam, will start on 10 February this year [the second day of the Lunar New Year], according to the My Duc District People's Committee.

The festival is usually busiest between the 15th and 20th of the second month of the lunar calendar, as this is when the main celebrations take place. However, from the first day of the Lunar New Year, thousands of tourists and pilgrims flock to the sacred site to pray for a prosperous and happy year.