The legendary road

The opening day of the Tea Festival is closer, the festival areas in Thai Nguyen are more exciting with the ebullient atmosphere of workers who are working hard to set up the big stages, the small stores displaying products.  

The highlights on the roads are colorful banners, hoardings on tea. The most impressive is the road line between the Museum of the Cultures of Viet Nam's Ethnic Groups and Thai Nguyen City Park - this road was chosen to build up "The Legendary Tea Road" by the Tea Festival’s Organization Board .

When looking at the road which "is becoming" the legend, Mr. Tran Xuan Hien, in Quang Trung Ward, Thai Nguyen City told cheerfully: “That’s right, Thai Nguyen has a legend of Nui Coc Lake, and now there will be "The legendary road" because tea is a basic fundamental characteristic of the land and people of Thai Nguyen, etc.”

On the new "Legendary road", looking at everybody with the peaceful feeling, Mr. Vo Van Tam, Director of Viet 21 Media and Event JSC, the construction company of "the legendary tea road" said: “On the road of 100-meter-length, we use 7 information modules for decorating and presenting the information. Each information module is composed by four information tablets. Each module has 8 sides to show the necessary information to serve the Festival.”

It can be said that the Organization Board has chosen an ideal place to build "The Legendary Road." One end of the road is adjacent to the road line leading to the 20-8 Square, the exchange zone of tea - tea culture and the arts performance. Another is adjacent to Thanh Nien Road and runs along Cau river. On the end of the road, there is a big gate of 18-meter-width and half circle-shaped earth. Mr. Tran Van Binh constructing with the building group said: “The main gate is made with the reinforcement frame, the thick MDF wood surface to make the shape; the surface is stuck by Pb outdoor decals. There is the art lighting system when it’s dark. On the inox frame, there are flags of countries attending the Festival. The end of the road is decorated with the small scenery of teapot of the Ly dynasty. The teapot is 3 meters high and  its base is 8 meters wide. The material of the teapot and its base are made of composite plastic and aluminum in turn. Also at the end of the road, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan and his group concentrating on making frames, the hanging frame of banners, pictures, said: “To complete the road in the timely progress, we set up tents at this site. The construction materials of bamboo are brought from Bac Giang.”

Mr. Vo Van Tam told more: “More than 30 skilled workers have continuously constructed for nearly 15 days to complete the road. Despite being hard, we feel happy to help Thai Nguyen people as well as visitors contemplate and enjoy a cultural beauty in the Festival.” Through the exchange, we also know that through the modules set up on the road, visitors can catch the information fast on the tea history and the famous tea cultures in the world, such as Kinh Tea (China), Tea Ceremony (Japan), Tea Festival (Korea); the nations,  territories in the world which consume tea; the history of Vietnamese tea and the tea cultivating and processing areas in over the country; the famous Thai Nguyen tea area; Viet Nam tea trademarks; the development potential of Vietnamese tea; the tea culture of Viet Nam including the use of tea and tea enjoying art; equipment of brewing and using tea in Viet Nam. Among the modules of tea, there are also five clusters of vivid imagery presented by actors wearing the ethnic clothes and including classes in the ancient Viet Nam society, such as the elderly group, people with dignitaries, intellectual circles, farmers, and youth. 5 clusters of tea include tea in Zen Buddhism; tea and reading the holy books and the calligraphy art; tea and hobby of playing chess, totom; tea and the worship of the Holy Mother; tea and other forms of performing arts community .

During the Festival, “The Legendary Road" will reflects the daily life of people and some community’s games, so the road will become more lively, closer to visitors. The popular games show the communal activities which women wear the four-panel traditional dress, flat palm with fringes; the men wear the ancient costume, turbans; children wear the black pants and brown blouse. On the road, there are also the lively performances, such as picking tea leaves, carrying fresh and brown tea to hawk, people bring the offering to the pagoda. The performances on “The Legendary Road" help visitors understand better the close relationship between tea and the life of the Vietnamese people.