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From the doorstep of each stilt house overlooking the lush Bắc Sơn fields—distant green mountains, a winding stream, and golden rice converging into a single view—visitors pause to breathe in the scent of young rice. At Quỳnh Sơn, a 60-year-old Australian visitor, Mr. Rudi, arrived after seeing photos of the golden fields online. “It is so surreal I question whether it is real,” he said after flying to Vietnam in October 2025 and driving along mountain roads to the village, where he stayed at a Tày homestay. “I have never seen anything like this in Europe,” he added.
Residents of Quỳnh Sơn previously relied on a few plots of land, facing hardship when weather turned unfavorable. Tourism has opened a new path. Today, more than 10 households operate homestays, preserving traditional stilt-house architecture. Guests can stay with local families and take part in farming and cooking activities. Homestays meet basic standards, including those at Dương Công Chích, Dương Công Trọng, Dương Công Cồ, Dương Đình Hanh, Dương Công Chài, Dương Thị Dư, among others.
Mr. Dương Công Chài, 76, opened his family’s stilt house—more than 90 years old—to guests in 2010. Previously, the family harvested less than a ton of rice; now, the household earns several times more. During the harvest season, guests arrive in large numbers, and the house can accommodate up to 40 people per day.
Following Chài’s example, Ms. Dương Thị Dư renovated her stilt house into a homestay. From a family dependent on a single field with unstable income, she now hosts dozens of guests each month, with rooms filling during holidays. She said the biggest benefit is not money but the joy of preserving traditional songs (Then), sli dancing, black bánh chưng, and other dishes for future generations.
The article describes a visit to Bắc Sơn during the Golden Harvest Festival 2025, as part of a FamTrip on travel experience and cooperation organized by the Lang Son Provincial Center for Investment, Trade and Tourism. From a vantage point more than 700 meters above sea level on Nà Lay, the Bắc Sơn valley appeared like a “giant mirror” reflecting the blue sky, with the Phai Rằm stream winding through golden rice fields.
According to Mr. Trương Kỳ Hội, Chairman of the Bắc Sơn Commune Farmers’ Association, what keeps tourists engaged is not only the scenery but also life experiences tied to traditional agriculture. During the festival, visitors can manually thresh rice, wrap black bánh chưng, and shape black bánh chung, a Tày specialty.
In October, the harvest season’s traditional rice-harvest competition draws large crowds. On a selected field, teams of 3–4 people use sickles held close to the base of rice stalks, bundle the grain tightly to avoid “losing grains,” and strike it rhythmically on wooden planks so kernels pop and crackle in the sun. Mrs. Dương Thị Bình, a member of the Bắc Quỳnh team, said the activity helps the younger generation understand the effort of ancestors and value every grain of rice.
Festival activities also include rice-threshing contests, black bánh chưng making, SUP board riding in the valley, OCOP product exhibitions, and a hill-tribe food market.
The coverage also highlights a Đông Sơn-style brick and tile workshop, described as one of Bắc Sơn’s distinctive travel experiences. In the workshop, craftsmen shape bricks as the sound of hands kneading clay and blades rasping echoes. Mr. Hoàng Công Hưng, 40, said the bricks are called yin-yang because they alternate face-up and face-down, “like Heaven and Earth.”
To produce a sound brick, the process includes selecting fine clay from waterlogged beds and removing stones; kneading until pliable; shaping into rectangular blocks; firing in a kiln for 23–25 days with day-night temperature control based on long experience; and ensuring no inclusions that could cause cracks.
Each year, Hưng’s family produces about 500,000 bricks, supplying several Northern provinces. Today, Bắc Sơn retains around 30 brick-making households. Clay is becoming scarce and brick-making remains labor-intensive, but residents continue the work. The bricks are described as both a handicraft product and a memory of a century-old village mission where Earth, Fire, and People are linked.
In recent years, Bắc Sơn’s brick village has become a rural tourism experience. In 2025, Hưng’s family welcomed about 1,000 visitors, including many international guests. Visitors can mold bricks themselves, engrave names on products, tour firing kilns, stay in stilt houses, and enjoy Tày cuisine.
In October 2025, after surpassing 270 applications from 65 countries, Quỳnh Sơn’s Làng du lịch was named “World’s Best Tourism Village 2025” by UN Tourism. Mr. Trịnh Minh Tuấn, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the People’s Committee of Bắc Sơn, said Bắc Sơn is rich in revolutionary tradition and strong in Tày, Nùng, Dao, and Kinh cultures.
The nomination dossier for Quỳnh Sơn was prepared by the Lang Son Center for Investment and Trade and met nine rigorous criteria covering cultural and natural resource conservation, sustainable socio-economic development, connectivity infrastructure, and community participation. The honor is presented as confirmation that Quỳnh Sơn’s community tourism model is aligned with sustainable development goals.
From the perspective of travel enterprises, Mr. Lương Duy Doanh, Director of FiveStar Travel, said the title is not an endpoint but a beginning for preserving rustic charm and improving service quality. He emphasized the need for policy support to sustain stilt houses, noting that each house is part of the heritage and the village’s brand. Without support, households may replace stilt houses with concrete structures, which would erode the village’s distinctive character.
The article concludes that, in recent years, Quỳnh Sơn has become a tourism destination fostering a sustainable, community-based economy.
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