Bat Trang is an old, well established village in the Gia Lâm district of Hanoi. It is about 13 km from central Hanoi.

It is famous for producing a unique style of ceramics called Bat Trang Porcelain. Bát Tràng is well known throughout Vietnam for its beautiful ceramics.

Bat Trang porcelain and pottery is a type of ceramics made in the village of Bat Trang, in the suburban outskirts of the northern Vietnamese city of Hanoi. The village is located in an area rich in clay suitable for making fine ceramic. Bát Tràng ceramics are considered some of the best known porcelain products in Vietnam besides those of Chu Đau, Đang Nai, Phu Lang, and Ninh Thuan. During the past centuries, Bat Trang china products have travelled in European trading ships to all parts of the world.

Bat Trang, in the several past centuries, mainly made worshipping objects, then produced house-utensils, including bowls, plates, vases, cups and pots. The village has recently diversified its products, producing many items of fine art ceramics and high quality porcelain.

Bat Trang ceramics have also been shipped to many countries, such as Japan, the Republic of Korea, the US and EU member countries. Many ancient ceramics of Bat Trang are being kept in major museums in the world, such as the Royaux museum in Belgium and the Guimet museum in France.

Since 2002, Bat Trang artisans have promoted their co-operation in the Bat Trang Ceramics Association to boost production and marketing. The association helps Bat Trang people and ceramics businesses get information about the market, learn about new technology, trading ways and opportunities for their trade in order to raise their competitiveness.

The association has established a centre to promote its exports and is building the trademark of “Bat Trang Vietnam – a 1,000-year tradition”.

The Bat Trang village festival is held annually at the middle of the second month according to the lunar calendar, which usually lasts for seven days.

Van Phuc is situated on the bank of Nhue River, 10km from central Hanoi on the southwest motorway. The village is in the centre of Ha Dong Town, and the biggest silk production village in Vietnam. The sound of looms has filled Van Phuc for a thousand years, and is a touching sound to villagers when returning from far away.

The main road is surrounded by greenery and ponds, and colourful bolts of silk drying on the road. In fact, the village’s fine silk, commonly known as Ha Dong Silk, has inspired many poets and composers to write about its beauty. The village is busy with activity and one can hear the sound of the newer power-looms in every home. The days of working strenuously with traditional, manual looms are gone, and the village’s weavers each operate three large power-looms with a small electric motor.

Following stories of Van Phuc artisans, the first Vietnamese silk maker was Princess Hoang Phu Thieu Hoa, also known as Mo Nham. Daughter of King Hung Dinh Vuong – King of the first Dynasty of Vietnam – she lived over 3000 years ago.
Thieu Hoa liked weaving, and she often travelled outside the palace to teach people to farm silkworms and the fine art of weaving. When Thieu Hoa reached the age to marry, her father wanted to marry her to a teacher. Thieu Hoa asked the King to delay the wedding and moved to Co Sat village to live, and there she taught people to weave while she worked as a farmer.

The most famous Van Phuc product is lua van, van means cloud in Chinese, since lua van billows like a cloud. The village artisans drew the idea to make lua van from flowers and the clouds the jet over bamboo thickets in the summer sky. Producing lua van is a demonstration of the skill of a silk weaver.

The village stocks a wide variety of silk products, and ships goods all over Vietnam, as well as exported overseas.

Like other visitors to the village, you will be surprised at this “silk shop town”, where almost all houses along the paths have been turned into shops selling silk products.

With a view to reaching Van Phuc village, tourists should travel south west out of Ha Noi on Nguyen Trai Street until they reach the border of Ha Dong District. Then turn right and dive for about 3km. The village is on the left, some 8 km from central Hanoi. Motorbike, bus, or taxis are all of good use.

Phu Vinh has become the most attractive place in Phu Nghia commune for visitors of handicraft trade village tours. Tourists coming to Phu Vinh were attracted by the history of over three centuries of traditional rattan handicraft and bamboo weaving. Nowadays, thanks to modern technologies for raw material processing, skills and techniques of the traditional handicraft are more enhanced and improved. Tourists coming to the village show great interests in the introduction on the handicraft industry from local residents who are all the time busy with weaving products.

The main road is surrounded by greenery and ponds, and colourful bolts of silk drying on the road. In fact, the village’s fine silk, commonly known as Ha Dong Silk, has inspired many poets and composers to write about its beauty. The village is busy with activity and one can hear the sound of the newer power-looms in every home. The days of working strenuously with traditional, manual looms are gone, and the village’s weavers each operate three large power-looms with a small electric motor.

Following stories of Van Phuc artisans, the first Vietnamese silk maker was Princess Hoang Phu Thieu Hoa, also known as Mo Nham. Daughter of King Hung Dinh Vuong – King of the first Dynasty of Vietnam – she lived over 3000 years ago.
Thieu Hoa liked weaving, and she often travelled outside the palace to teach people to farm silkworms and the fine art of weaving. When Thieu Hoa reached the age to marry, her father wanted to marry her to a teacher. Thieu Hoa asked the King to delay the wedding and moved to Co Sat village to live, and there she taught people to weave while she worked as a farmer.

The most famous Van Phuc product is lua van, van means cloud in Chinese, since lua van billows like a cloud. The village artisans drew the idea to make lua van from flowers and the clouds the jet over bamboo thickets in the summer sky. Producing lua van is a demonstration of the skill of a silk weaver.

The village stocks a wide variety of silk products, and ships goods all over Vietnam, as well as exported overseas.

Like other visitors to the village, you will be surprised at this “silk shop town”, where almost all houses along the paths have been turned into shops selling silk products.

With a view to reaching Van Phuc village, tourists should travel south west out of Ha Noi on Nguyen Trai Street until they reach the border of Ha Dong District. Then turn right and dive for about 3km. The village is on the left, some 8 km from central Hanoi. Motorbike, bus, or taxis are all of good use.

Son Dong village of Hoai Duc district, has a long-standing history as a traditional handicraft village for carving “statues, sculptures, and red lacquer trimmed with gold”. The village has the distinction of recently being recognized by Vietnam Record Book Center as “a trade village that sculpts the largest quantity of statues and worshipping objects for buddhists”.

Son Dong Village Festial time:
The 5th to the 6th day of the second lunar month.
Location: Son Dong Commune, Hoai Duc District, Hanoi.

Objects of worship: Dong nhac giang than (a good genius).
Activities: Buffalo offering ceremony, procession and contest of giây cakes, vieing for bong (flower made by bamboo).

Quat Dong village, Thuong Tin district (Ha Noi) is a traditional village of handicraft from 17th century. The embroidery in Quat Dong has been reached to the sosphicicated and refined. Embroidery art works from Quat Dong satisfy both foreign and domestic customers.

The traditional craft has been in existence for thousands of years, first marked by embroidered letters on clothes and silk in the first century.

Books of history and legends talk of how Imperial Concubine Y Lan taught palace maids embroidery techniques in the 11th century of the Ly Dynasty. But the craft did not really blossom until 600 years later when Le Cong Hanh returned home from his king’s envoy term in China.

Hanh who was a villager of Quat Dong, Thuong Tin District now on the outskirts of Hanoi brought back the embroidery craft of the Chinese and gave it to his neighbours and residents in surrounding communes. He was then honoured with the Ancestor of Quat Dong Embroidery.

The beauty and quality of the village’s products grew in reputation and became a favourite of royal mandarins and dignitaries in Thang Long (Hanoi today).

Although the skills spread across the country, works by Quat Dong’s artisans are still most appreciated.

This small village, 40 kilometres on the west of central Hanoi, has maintained its reputation for over three centuries. Just like Van Phuc villagers with their fine silks, Chuong people have their own pride for the famous Non. In the old time, the Vietnamese wore the conical hats to hide the rain and the sun. The conical hats fabricated with a bamboo frame and covered by leaf. Each household of Chuong village can produce the conical hat. The materials are simple: leaves for covering; bamboo for the frame, rattan strings and now the industrial thread, some rattans to fabricate the frame. Although it is such simple only, a white leaf conical with roll and equal thread line require a talent producer.

There are various kinds of conical hat, thick, solid or thin, elegant. In the old time, there were hats with silk tasseled trap, bamboo hat worn by Buddhist monks, by soldiers.

Chuong hats are different from hats of other provinces which are revolved only two times, with the second being in a reverse direction, Chuong village’s hats are revolved three times, two times with white palm and once with bamboo cataphyll. Thank to the addition layer of bamboo cataphyll, Chuong hats are more solid and durable.

In the late half of 20th century, the flat-top hat was gradually replaced by the cone-shape, just as change has affected the basic ingredient; the palm leave. A new material, lui leaves from Nghe Tinh and Quang Binh province, make each Non Chuong lighter, and therefore more elegant.

Chuyen My is about 35 kilometers south of central Hanoi. This village is famous for creating more traditional crafts related to wood carving. It’s the mother of pearl inlay that makes it so popular; and this wasn’t started until the Ly Dynasty.

A visit here can be made in combination with a trip to Hoa Lu; because its 35 kilometers south of Hanoi

Ha Thai village – Duyen Thai commune is located right by side of 1A national highway and among other famous trade villages. Ha Thai village’s lacquer painting itself has developed for a long time. Previously, the village had one largest lacquer painting cooperative in the former Ha Son Binh province with 500 households joined in the cooperative.

After that, exporting lacquer painting product was slow downed by fluctuations of East European markets. However, for the past years, thank to the State’s new mechanism and opening policies, Ha Thai’s lacquer painting industry has been strongly developing. A number of the former cooperative members become managers of large-scaled enterprises with annual revenue of billions VND. Ha Thai’s products are so diverse with thousands of different designs and models satisfying demands of many international markets.