Trang An Eco-tourism complex – breathtaking venue

Trang An Eco-tourism complex has long been known for its outstanding universal values on natural landscapes, history and geological formation. It is also the place having been invested to become the world class tourist resort attracting numerous tourists.

Retaining a total area of 3177.2 hectares, Trang An Eco-tourism complex is located in 8 communes of districts, namely Gia Vien, Hoa Lu and Ninh Binh city. The eco-tourism complex is divided into 5 major functional tourist zones: special preserved zone (Hoa Lu Ancient Capital area), center zone, cave zone, tourism service zone and Bai Dinh Pagoda spiritual tourist zone.  Trang An complex is also home to 47 historical relics with the large number of caves hiding in the limestone. Valleys and the system of underground river interweaving each other creating the magical and romantic space. It is one of the indispensable tourist sites in the journey of discovering Vietnam travel to Ninh Binh. Tourists once setting foot on here will actually get unforgettable experiences.

An engaging ecoregion

Trang An cave area is located in Gia Vien district and Hoa Lu district with an area of 966.4 ha. According to incomplete statistics, the ecotourism complex is home to 500 species of plants, 73 bird species, 41 species of mammals and 32 species of reptiles. Currently, the number of aquatic caves in the tourist complex is 48 along with numerous historical artifacts and archaeological relics. It has been preserved the vestiges of the prehistoric humans dating from 5,000 to 300 million year ago. Archaeologists and geologists assert that Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex - Hoa Lu was formerly an ancient 250 million to 300 million year inlet. Discovering Trang An cave tourist area is definitely one of the most impressive things to do in Ninh Binh.

Trang An cave tourist area is associated with the relics of Hoa Lu Ancient Capital. Dinh Bo Linh came to the throne in 968 and chose Hoa Lu, a rugged mountainous region as the capital. Here, he built the palaces, based on the mountain to defense and turned the rugged mountain into the fortress isolated from the outside. When building the citadel, King Dinh Tien Hoang had exploited the natural advantages to serve people. The limestone mountain ranges were connected with each other thanks to the artificial walls to erect a unique and solid capital. It currently still preserves the large number of historical evidences of a capital with three successive dynasties, namely Dinh, Le, Ly. It can be said that the tourist complex is one of the fascinating historical - cultural - spiritual - ecological tourist attractions in Ninh Binh.

Trang An tourist complex is situated in Thanh Tri Thien Tao mountain range of Hoa Lu Ancient Capital. Here, the mountains surrounded 4 sides with caves hiding under mountain each. The wonder is that these caves are connected with each other to create a Hoa Lu Ancient Capital retaining the solid defense. The towering mountains are observatories as well as protecting walls of the citadel. The time has been able to undermine the artificial architectural works, but the citadel still forever exists. It is also the reason why Hoa Lu Ancient Capital has been called "Stone Ancient Capital". Many archaeologists going to Trang An cave ecological complex consider it as a "outdoor geological museum" because Trang An complex is surrounded by bow-shaped limestone mountains among the wetland low-lying area. The cracks from the limestone mountains reflect geological movement creating flows inside the caves.

According to scientists, the famous karst caves in Hoa Lu limestone mountains- Ninh Binh and adjacent regions four thousand years old are regarded as a "Halong Bay on land" as today. The most prominent in the system of caves is type of horizontal water caves through the heart of the great mountains and regularly flooded. These caves convey convective water flowing throughout creeks between creating the line connecting the caves together. Exploring caves in Trang An tourist complex is always indispensable sites in Vietnam tour packages to Ninh Binh attracting the large number of tourists at home and internationally.

A magnificent tourist complex

Hoa Lu - Tam Coc - Bich Dong, an important part of Hoa Lu Ancient Capital heritage site with King Dinh Tien Hoang Temple and Le Hoan Temple along with Trang An ecotourism complex is indispensable tourist rendezvous in the system of national tourist areas in Vietnam tour. As planned, Trang An ecotourism complex retains 9 waterway tourist routes and 2 road routes. The road route retains the length of 1.6 km into Tran Temple (also known as Noi Lam Temple) starting at Cay Bang wharf. It is actually interesting hiking route through 3 consecutive passes. The hiking trails are currently built with the broad stone sidesteps. On the way to Tran Temple (worshiping God Quy Minh - 18th Hung King), 7 octagonal ironwood buildings are built in order to serve the relaxation of trekking tourists. The waterway tourist routes combine hiking with excursions by boats across 13 caves to historic sites as the closed roadmap. It is these unique features make Ninh Binh travel become much more attractive.

Ninh Binh has built many projects and building items in Trang An Eco-tourism complex so far. In particular, the resort is home to about 30 caves which are not dredged to serve tourist activities. Yet the number of tourists to Bai Dinh - Trang An tourist complex has been constantly increasing since 2009. In detail, the number of tourists setting foots on Ninh Binh was over 3 million people in 2011. Thanks to the tourist development, tens of thousands of workers in Gia Vien district, Hoa Lu district, Ninh Binh city have a chance to participate in tourism services such as boating, restaurants, motels... In addition, many areas have been awakened the potential of agricultural crops, fungi production or traditional villages such as embroidery, pottery or stone carving, etc.  Ninh Binh tour with highlight of Bai Dinh - Trang An, Hoa Lu Ancient Capital and Tam Coc - Bich Dong has become one of the impressive destinations in Vietnam, which strongly influences the development of tourism in the country. Tourists going to Ninh Binh actually have the opportunity to be immersed in the peaceful scenery of the wonderful tourist site.

Trang An Eco-tourism complex will certainly be one of the fascinating Ninh Binh attractions in particular and in Vietnam in general. Tourists should once come here to enjoy the grandeur of the mountains, the daydreaming of lakes, spectacular caves together with immense blue sky. All mingles together offering tourists the passionate and poetic feelings among the wonderful natural scenery. The tourist complex significantly contributes to promote Ninh Binh tourism in particular and Vietnam tourism in general closer to tourists at home and internationally.