Dong Thap Muoi (Plain of Reeds) is a vast lowland in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta. The area is famous for its charm and the historical value given that it was an important military base during the American and French wars.
Long An has defined eco tourism in Dong Thap Muoi as a breakthrough to the provinces economic development. Accordingly, it has tailored an impressive eco tourism program in the flood reason, to be lasting from September every year, in which visitors have a chance to boat along indigo forests, inhale fresh ambience and enjoy beautiful natural scenes and the daily life of people in the flood areas.
The heart of Dong Thap Muoi is a typical eco tourism site in the southern low-lying areas. Here one can see endless indigo forests and vast lotus fields. Diverse types of fare fauna such as tortoises, snakes, red-crowned cranes, pelicans, etc. are protected to enhance the lust of the ecological site.
A new tourist site in Dong Thap Muoi, Nui Dat, is located in the center of Moc Hoa township in a border district in Long An. The site was founded in the 1960s. From afar, Nui Dat looks like a huge oasis floating in the surface of a big blue lake. Here, visitors can call on the Dong Thap Muoi herbal reserve where many precious herbal plants in the Mekong Delta are kept. The area covers a total 1,041ha, including 800ha of primitive forests, a 100ha lake, a testing laboratory producing herbal drugs. Alongside preserving, development and growing new herbal plants, the area accommodates over 1,000 ecological herbs. Here one could find a center producing cancer drugs and others for specific treatment.
The Dong Thap Muoi tourist complex is also an attractive venue. Part of the complex is the Tan Lap floating village ecological site (Tan Lap commune, Moc Hoa district, 15km south of Cambodia border line) that is under construction. Consisted of 500ha buffer zone and 135ha major area, the site is expected to become a typical ecological tourist site in Long An particularly and the whole Dong Thap Muoi region generally in the near future at a cost of over VND100 billion. The site will consist of 11 functional areas such as a wild fauna area, a nature reserve, an environmental education center, a green tree area, a floating house area, etc.
Besides the Tan Lap ecological site in Moc Hoa district, the Dong Thap Muoi ecological tourism development program also consists of the Thanh Nien Lam Vien project (Hoang Hoa district) over 104ha and costs VND36 billion and the Lang Sen submerged area (Tan Hung district) over 5,030ha. In addition, Long An offers eco tours to Dong Thap Muoi via Binh Hiep national border crossing, in the meantime makes efforts to restore cultural and historical relics and design authentic art programs to attract visitors.
