This year's Huong (Perfume) Pagoda Festival, themed "Safe - Civilized - Friendly", will be held in Hanoi's outskirts My Duc District from February 12, or the second day of the Lunar New Year, to May 11, or the fourth day of the fourth lunar month.

Tourists riding boats on the Canary River, Huong Pagoda. Photo: Ngoc Tu/The Hanoi Times

The official opening of the festival will be held on February 15, 2024, or January 6, 2024, at Thien Tru Pagoda's Yard - Huong Pagoda Complex, according to Dang Van Canh, Deputy Chairman of the My Duc District People's Committee.

As usual, the festival organizing committee will provide three bus lines with 110 electric cars to transport visitors from the main bus stations to the pagoda area.

In addition, security work and food safety control will be tightened. Visitors will have to buy electronic tickets for the attraction at a cost of VND120,000 (US$5) per person. Boat rides will cost from VND65,000 ($2.67) to VND85,000 ($3.49) per person.

Visitors can also choose to travel by cable car with a round-trip ticket costing VND220,000 ($9) per adult or VND150,000 (about $6) per child. One-way tickets cost VND150,000 ($6) and VND100,000 ($4) for adults and children, respectively.

Located about 60 kilometers southwest of Hanoi, the Perfume Pagoda is a famous Buddhist temple and a spectacular tourist attraction in northern Vietnam.

The famous tourist attraction consists of a complex of Buddhist pagodas and shrines perched on the limestone cliffs of Huong Son or Perfume Mountain.

The Perfume Pagoda Festival is considered the largest Buddhist festival in northern Vietnam and plays an important role in the spiritual life of Vietnamese people, especially Vietnamese Buddhists.