City’s green lung set to pump up tourism

      A stunning combination of mountains, sea and pristine sandy beaches serves up delectable vistas for visitors to the Son Tra Peninsula. Thien Ly finds out more.
Hush! Holding my breath, I move stealthily towards the sounds and look up.
My silence is rewarded as I see a dozen Vooc Cha Va chan nau (shanked doucs) leisurely playing with each other, swinging from branch to branch across a vast canopy of green.
I am able to witness the fascinating spectacle as my friends and I trek through a primitive forest in the Son Tra peninsula. A rare sight, as the shanked douc, said to number more than 400 in the forest, is listed in the Red Book of Endangered Animals.
Perhaps more surprising is that a place of such clean, lush and green natural wilderness stands just 10km southwest of Da Nang, truly a special gift bestowed on the city by mother nature.
The Son Tra peninsula rises up to 696m above the sea level and looks like a mushroom when seen from a distance. The cap of the mushroom is Son Tra Mountain and its stalk are the white sandy beaches.
Son Tra’s diverse topography not only makes for stunning scenery, but also allows for great biodiversity. The mountain acts as a giant screen protecting Da Nang from storms and cyclones coming in from the sea. And its large primitive forest is the citygreen lung.
From the top of the Son Tra Mountain we have a terrific vantage point over Da Nang City, the sea and more than 30km of coastline that stretches all the way to the Cua Dai beach near Hoi An Town. From where we stand, the coastline looks like a long silk cloth flapping in the wind.
The Son Tra peninsula covers an area of about 60sq.km. In the past, it was an archipelago of three small islands: Nghe (Whelp), Mo Dieu (Hawk Beak) and Co Ngua (Horse Neck), says Ho Quang Anh, head of the Son Tra Eco Tourism Sea Board.
"The Son Tra peninsula in combination with the Hai Van mountain range, creates an ideal anchorage ground which has many names including Tien Sa, Thung, Han and Da Nang. Due to its ideal location and depth, important, ports including Tien Sa and Lien Chieu, were built there," Anh says.
The sea around the peninsula is still pristine with colourful corals, fish and turquoise water, making it a perfect location for scuba diving and other sea sports.
Spoilt for choice
The beaches on the peninsula – Tien Sa, Xep, Tranh, Rang, Nom and Bai But to name some, each have their own original beauty that makes it difficult for us to choose.
Bai But twinkles with the pink and violet colours of snails and oyster shells. Rang Beach is peaceful and its waters so clear that you can see shoals of fish swimming around as if in a giant glass aquarium. At the Nam and Bac beaches, the sand and gently undulating waves beckon one with languid charm.
Legend has it that the enchanting landscape of Tien Sa lures many tien (fairies) to bathe there, giving the beach its name.
All the beaches are easy to get to, but visitors have to hitch a ride on a boat to get to Bac beach.
After contemplating the pretty beaches, we begin to explore Son Tra Mountain via a small asphalt road running around the mountain slope, deeply breathing in the fresh sea air.
The mountain, standing behind the beaches, welcomes us warmly with a bouquet of charming wild flowers between two rows of Hong Sim trees (Rose Myrthe) along the road.
"In two months time it’s the season for rose myrthe fruits in Son Tra, they taste very sweet," says Nguyen Duc Vu, head of the Son Tra Tourism Management Office, who is also our guide on this tour.
Vu reels off facts about the peninsula with evident pride: "Covering an area of 4,370ha, the Son Tra Mountain has many rare and valuable species of animals which thrive in a climate that blends the weather of the North and South of the country.
"Son Tra has nearly 1,000 species of plants belonging to 271 orders and 90 families, including 22 rare species such as Cot Toai Bo (Quercifolia) and Cam Lai (Dalbergia).
"The forest also has more than 100 animal species, dozens of which are listed in the Red Book of Endangered Animals. They include 30 mammal species, 51 bird species, 15 reptile species, and three amphibian species."
The peninsula is also called Monkey Island as it is home to a healthy colony of monkeys, several species of which are endangered. At particular risk are the red-shanked douc langur, the stump-tailed macaque and the long-tailed crab-eating macaque.
Our guide says visitors these days are unlikely to see many monkeys around, so we are very lucky to see some sitting in the middle of our route, or perching upon branches of the trees along the road. It is not possible to admire them for long or take pictures as they move very fast as we draw closer. We also see jungle fowl with colourful feathers along the road.
Our guide takes us to a 1,000-year-old banyan tree which has a set of giant aerial roots covering nearly 100sq.m. The immensity of nature is a humbling experience. A 500m trek along the Nai Vang (Golden Deer) stream to the Son Tra primeval forest takes us to another 1,000-year-old banyan tree in the shape of a deer.
Apart from its breathtaking landscapes, the Son Tra peninsula also has many places of historical significance, such as an ancient lighthouse that has guided ships for over 100 years, the old American radar station once called "Indochina’s eyes of God" and an old American helipad.
We end our 25km tour at the Linh Ung Pagoda which has a 65m high Bodhisattva Kwan Yin statue – the highest in Viet Nam.
Since a visit to the seaside or the mountain also makes one hungry, we thoroughly enjoy a feast of grilled shrimp, fried squid and roast crab at a small restaurant close to the sea afterwards.
As we eat, I make plans in my mind about returning here again. I am confident quite a few visitors will share similar thoughts.
Tourism plans
"Son Tra is really a living encyclopaedia for studying the natural world, so it was recognised by the Government in 1997 as a National Nature Reserve," says Anh, head of the Son Tra Eco TSB.
"The speciality of Son Tra is that it is a primeval forest in the middle of the city," Anh says.
"Thanks to having a plentiful and almost primitive vegetative cover, a mountain on one side and the sea on the other, Son Tra is recognised to have a great potential to develop tourism. However, tourism has only begun to develop recently because the peninsula was managed by the military in the past," he said.
Since the Government issued a decision in 2003 allowing Da Nang to develop economic activities in combination with the consolidation of security and national defence at the Son Tra Peninsula, the area has been part of the city’s tourism strategy for the development of an eco-tourism urban area in the future, Anh say.
City authorities have invested about VND100 billion in recent years to upgrade infrastructure facilities at Son Tra, including roads, power and water suppllies, and telecom services, Anh said.
"At prerent, we have been developing many projects to build luxury resorts like Bien Dong, Son Tra Spa and Bai But. We have also opened some new tours to Son Tra Mountain. In coming years, we shall give investment priority to developing marine entertainment activities, particularly sea sports."
Nguyen Phuc Linh, deputy director of the Da Nang Cultural, Sport and Tourism Department, says, "Developing tourism at the Son Tra peninsula is in line with the city Government’s new policy of turning the local tourism industry into a key economic sector."
"However, because Son Tra has an important position in national defence as well as precious ecosystem, our most important task now is how to develop tourist activities, protect the environment and ensure security," Linh says.
Towards this end, authorities are working on a "package of regulations" that will encourage companies to invest in developing tourism in Son Tra but also protect the natural environment and landscape while paying attention to security concerns, he added.
Endowed with a diverse ecosystem steeped in majesty and romance, Son Tra is expected to not only improve the economy of Da Nang but grow in ecological significance as time passes.
Those who have experienced the resplendent glow of dawn and the quietness of twilight on this peninsula will understand, paraphrasing Keats, that a moment of beauty is a joy forever.