BEAUTIFUL SIGHTS - BEAUTY SPOTS

BinhThuan is a coastal province of Southern Central Vietnam with over 192 km of coastline; natural area : 7,849km² population : over one mil lion, composed of many different ethnic groups. Being in an important position, the gate for socioeconomic cultural exchange between Eastern South Vietnam, Southern Central Vietnam and Western Highlands, BinhThuan has many favorable conditions for economic development and tourist potential enhancement.

BinhThuan is known for beaches of beautiful landscape, and pure and pristine environment such as CaNa, CuLaoCau Island, MuiNe, HonBa Island, DoiDuong Beach .... and other historic and cultural relics of unique architecture such as DucThanh Relics Area, Poaching Champa Tower, CoThach Pagoda ..... all have constituted the significant factors to enhance the tourism status of BinhThuan, at present and in the future.

BinhThuan is a coastal province located east of HoChiMinh City. Eight ethnic minorities populate this area: Kinh, Cham, Hoa, Tay, Nung, RaGlai, and Ma. The weather in BinhThuan is quite favorable for organizing tourism activities. This is a highly-sun drenched region with low and focused rainfall, and yearly average temperature of approx. 26.3 – 27.5^o C , known as one of “Blue sea - yellow sun - white sand“

BAUTRANG BEAUTY SPOT
BauTrang is a fresh-water lake, once belonging to BinhNhon commune, HoaDa district, BinhThuan province; now HongLam hamlet, HoaThang commune, BacBinh district, about 65km North East of PhanThiet city. BauTrang has been formed for a very long time, located in the middle of vast large sand dune area alternated by many groups of short forest trees. The lake water is very fresh and clear. From the distance, we can see a mild cool green color covering the white sand dunes. BauTrang is divided into 2 parts by a crossing sand dune. The local people here called them "BauOng" and "BauBa" formerly; although it is a water pond formed by Nature, the local people still show their gratitude to it because it has provided the water source to support the local people and forest animals here in the dry season. 
  The deepest place of BauTrang is 19 meters, and shallower toward the bank. Around the bank, there are a lot of lotuses, in summer they are in full bloom adorning this white sand area with more bright colors. A long time ago, around BauTrang there were many villages of the ancient Cham people living and using the lake water source. The Cham people erected The Temple to worship Goddess Thien Y Ana. When they left this area to come to other places, this temple was also collapsed and now there are its ancient relics left in the South of BauTrang. This was the vestige of a historical period about the Cham people's natural conquer here before the Vietnamese people came. BauTrang is not only the place to supply fresh water but also the beautiful sight in the area of HoaThang - BacBinh with the all year round fresh water source lessening the scorching air of the immense sand dunes. It is the place of scenic beauty where everyone coming to this area must visit.

TACU MOUNTAIN PAGODA                    
This pagoda is located on the top of TaCu mountain, so they call it TaCu mountain pagoda to distinguish it with some pagodas on the other mountains in BinhThuan province. This mountain pagoda was built in 1879 but many years before, there was a thatch roofed pagoda worshiping Buddha's. The pagoda belongs to the area of TanLap commune, HamThuanNam district, about 30 km South East of PhanThiet city. The head monk of the mountain pagoda is Buddhist priest TranHuuDuc, the pagoda-building site chosen by him is now at the height of 475 meters; all the year round there are green trees, flowing streams, singing birds and apes beside the pagoda. Later because of many different reasons, the pagoda has been separated into two, the upper one still at the old place has got the name of "LinhSonTruongTho" and the lower one "LinhSonLongDoan", both of them are called the Mountain Pagoda.  
TaCu Mountain Pagoda has combined and alternated with the for­est and mountain making an area of famous beautiful sights since formerly. Its whole sight is an architectural overall including: 3 door gates, temples, statues of Buddha’s, tomb towers, the First's Ancestor's grotto... well- concealed under the all-year-round green fresh ancient tree forest. From the foot of the mountain are hundreds of steps along twisting roads through the jungle leading to the pagoda. Here the air is cold and fresh, the steam radiates from the rock mountain with the attractive cool air even in summer. The beautiful sights of TaCu Mountain pagoda are famous for the poetic majestic scenery of the mountain and forest. On the other hand, human hands through many generations in turn have built up the unique huge art architectural projects in the province as well as the nearby ones. That is the huge giant statue of "ThihCaNhapNietBan" lying on the highest position about 100 meters from the pagoda. By the skill and talent, techniques of sculpture and veneration, the artisan-artists created the rare statue in the history of the Vietnamese Buddhism. This work was presided in 1962 by engineer TruongDinhY.
About 50 meters from the statue of Buddha is the group of Tam The Buddha’s: ADiDa, QuanAmBoTat, DaiTheChi; all of these 3 statues are about 7 meters high, with mild faces looking over the whole world as if they were ready to save and support human beings. Every season in the year, there are always pilgrims coming to visit Buddha’s, to watch the beautiful sights of the pagoda and mountain forest; especially on the occasion of Spring and New Year, ten thousands of people come to the pagoda, following each other to climb the mountain like dragons and snakes. Recently every year they organize a mountain - climbing competition attracting many young people from the Eastern provinces. In the next future here they will carry out the project of hanging cables in order to bring travelers up and down to visit the pagodas more conveniently. The TaCu Mountain Pagoda with the forests in the Natural Preserve Area has classified as the national beauty spot by the Government in 1993.  

  COTHACH PAGODA
Grotto Pagoda named " CoThachTu" was built at the beginning half of the nineteenth century, located in the grottoes on CoThach mountainous hill at the height of over 64 meters, belonging to the area of BinhThanh commune, TuyPhong district, BinhThuan province. CoThach is a large stone mountainous area consisting of thousands and ten thousands of big and small rocks, some full mass rocks are as big as houses, some are like stone tables, some lie on one another as if human hands had arranged and some have mysterious strange shapes and forms, all of them contain the unique rudimentary beauty with a lot of primitive grottoes twisting deep into the mountain.
The above is the rock mountain with forest trees pushing one another; at the foot of CoThach is the clear blue sea. With whispering splashing waves all the year round, and naturally - formed beach, not far away from there is a bank of multicolored pebbles which has existed for thousands of years, all of these have made CoThach full of factors of lovely and attractive mountain and water. Beside the natural beauty of the grottoes combined with the human creativeness, here CoThach has still preserved a lot of rare precious historical cultural heritages: lots of Chinese - Vietnamese cultural heritages such as parallel scrolls, horizontal boards inscribed with Chinese characters and the documents from the days of making this pagoda. Some other culturally and historically valuable ancient objects such as the Great Bell, BatNha drum have got the each from the beginning half of the nineteenth century. The head monk of CoThachTu has been Buddhist priest ThichMinhDuc for scores of years, CoThachTu, it is BinhThuan province's main tourist place, every year ten thousands of travelers from every part of the country come here in order to worship and kowtow Buddha’s and to go for sight seeing tours of the rare special beautiful sights here. With its values about the natural beautiful sights and about history - culture, CoThachTu has classified as the National beautiful place of historical interest in 1993 by the Government.

 LAOCAU ISLE
Cau isle is a young island rising in the sea, about 9 km from the seashore, it is possible to come to this isle from several different points such as PhuocThe commune, VinhHao commune, BinhThanh or from CaNa. The time depends on each wharf but on average, it takes about 40 minutes to come to this island by motorized sampan. Cau isle is about 119 km North East of PhanThiet city. Cau isle has the length of over 1500 meters and the largest place is nearly 700 meters and the highest one is more than 7 meters. From the main land, it looks like a big warship. The whole island is surrounded by ten thousands of rocks with many different and shapes, they look like packs of animals of many big and small kinds, it is really interesting when having a condition to observe the whole island carefully. Around this isle, the water is always clear and blue; when the tide is low, on the seashore we can see numerous beautiful oyster shells and snail shells fascinating lots of tourists and travelers. Around the island, there are many kinds of living sea animals and good seamen with simple tools can also find fresh seafood. On the isle, there are shallow wells for fresh water. Although the water amount is small, it is the sort of permanent leaking water - the ancient book called them "Fairy Wells". Nowadays, Cau Isle has been planned to be a sea-creature preserving area with a lot of promising prospects on ecological tourism in the future.  

  KHEGA LIGHTHOUSE
KheGa lighthouse was built on the top of KheGa island with the area of 5 hectares in the seaside at TanThanh commune, once belonging to HamTan district, now HamThuanNam district, about 30 km South East of PhanThiet city. KheGa Lighthouse was built by a French design engineer named Chnavat to direct boats and ships to travel, it was started from February, 1897 and opened at the end of the year 1898, now there is still a big granite sheet right in front of the gate leading to the Lighthouse with the number of 1899 KheGa Lighthouse officially worked in 1900. The managing officers were a French man (the head) and 8 Vietnamese people guarding the light. In the marine history of this area, in the previous generations, there were so many wrecked travel ling merchant ships because they could not define coordinates and positions, So KheGa Cape has been considered as an extremely dangerous and important position of the seaside from PhanRang to VungTau. Due to this seaside's dangerous and important position, and in order to meet the increasing transportation need of the French army as well as foreign merchant ships coming here, some French people studied to build KheGa Lighthouse. In the building time, so many people died from accidents; nowadays here there is still a cemetery burying the people who had died in this project.
KheGa Island is 500 meters from the seashore; on the low water days, we can wade to the island from the seashore. When tidal flow and windy, it is very hard to travel. On the island, this Lighthouse was built comparatively huge; probably this is the highest one in our country with its octagonal granite pole. The origin of the granite used to build KheGa Lighthouse by the French people has been unknown because there is not this kind of granite in the area. And all of these cubic meters of granite are not only normal with 4 angles but also carved and sculptured into each square, each concrete form and side fitting with each other. It means that there was nearly a ready - made available granite tower, when building they only installed it in the right orders and angles and sides from low to high and they only needed to use mortar to make this granite tower stick without having to plaster or render or repair. (This granite tight tower is 35 meters high, the total height from the ground level to the light top is 41.5 meters, the height from the light range to the sea level is 65 meters, and the size of the tower side is 2.60 meters. The thickness of the tower wall from the bottom to the height of 6 meters is 1.6m, when higher the thickness decreases from 1.5m and the thinnest at the tower top is 1 meter). On the tower top, there is a big light of 2000w used as a signal to direct boats and ships. Besides this Lighthouse, there is also a square big house with each side of 40 meters, under it is a 3 meters deep water - containing tunnel, in front of it is a well called the Fairy well. From the sea water level to the Lighthouse are scores of steps. Two lines of jasmine along the isle and around the Lighthouse bottom planted by the French people at the end of the previous century have been still the same until now, giving shadow all the year round. All of the 184 steel spiral stairs leading to the Lighthouse top and scores of 3 steps staircases leading to the light top have been brought from France, including the light on the top and the generator. Nowadays KheGa Island and the Lighthouse have become an attractive tourist point for travelers, because KheGa Lighthouse is both a beautiful sight and a unique architectural place of historical interest.

 THE PRINCE'S CASTLE
The Prince's castle consists of a community of the hills, the mountain, the river, the sea and the tower pagoda creating an area of beautiful sights with the salient points of comparatively high "Co" mountain top and 4 up - and - down hills next to the sea; the most beautiful are "Co" mountain, BaNai hill, PhûHai coastal estuary and the beach with the old fishing villages 7 km North East of PhanThiet city.
In 1911, a French prince as well as De Montpensier from France came here for traveling and hunting in the nearby hills, he realized the sights of mountain and water here were very beautiful, so he decided to buy a plot of land here to build a villa also used as a place where he could rest when hunting and traveling later. The French authority in BinhThuan (Ambassador Gamier) agreed to sell him BaNai hill according to his expectation.
On the 21st of February, 1911 this villa was started to be built and completed nearly one year later, with the area of 536 m² and 13 rooms. The villa area was built at the place nearby 100 meters South of Cham tower temple group Poshanu. In the process of transporting the materials up to build the villa area, the French destroyed the wall in front of the Tower's main door. This was a beautiful and comfortable villa with electric generators at night; under the villa there were a lot of tunnels containing rainwater enough for the people living in the villa in a year, this villa was considered as the most modern one in BinhThuan at that time. From then on, PhanThiet people have been used to calling this area "LauOngHoang - Prince's Castle" hill, because on this hill there used to be a beautiful big villa area built by De Montpensier.
Now The Prince's castle is an attractive tourist community including: the ancient Cham tower group, beside the tower is the time - honored ancient BuuSon pagoda, under the hill foot are the seashore, PhuHai coastal estuary, "Co" mountain where there is poet NguyenThong's tomb. All of them have combined with one another into a community of the cultural place of historical interest and beautiful sights in PhanThiet city.

 HONROM RESORT
Going from PhanThiet to MuiNe for 22 km, then for more 4 km along the seashore tourists will set foot in the HonRom resort.
The beach is clean and beautiful with clear blue water. Calm winds sing lullabies unceasingly under cool shadows of coconuts trees sagging under the weight of their fruit. White sand dunes follow the yellow ones.. All set up a wild attraction, inviting tourists to this well-known a field resort. The  HonRom tourist and picnic resort (HonRom II) - 28 kilometers away from PhanThiet City to the north east, located in the shade of a row of coconut trees, with the hill of white sand on this side and the bluest shore on the other side makes a very wonderful sight for your weekend holidays. On your way to HonRom resort, you can enjoy the wonderful sights such as historical Poshanu Ponagar, or the Prince Tower, which is a literature topic with the love story of HanMacTu, a poet, and MongCam. In addition, you can enjoy other beautiful natural sights such as SuoiTien, SuoiHong, TieuSaMac (Tiny Desert). When you are only about 1km from HonRom II, you will enjoy the sights of the Elysium. The beautiful sights accompanied by cool wind will eliminate your tiredness after a hard working week. Gliding on the sea waves by canoe.

 "HONBA" BEAUTY SPOT 
 HonBa is an island rising high up in the middle of the sea, nearly 2 kilometers East of LaGi seashore, HamTan district; and about 70 Km South East of PhanThiet City. HonBa is also a young mountain on which there are a lot of big ancient trees at the first half of the seventeenth century, Cham people erected a temple to worship Goddess ThienYAna - the ancient Champa Kingdom's sacred goddess. Since then, this island has got the name "Goddess's island - HonBa". The temple has the same architectural structure and art decoration as the Vietnamese temple of the same time. In this temple, the rock statue of Goddess ThienYAna was sculptured from an integral rock mass in its place by Cham artisan - artists. HonBa worshiping the statue of "Ba - the Goddess" on the top of  "HonBa" expresses Cham people's respect and honor for this Goddess. On the other hand in the previous centuries, the fishing job was the main one attracting crowds of Cham fishermen along the seashore and there still have been traces of the ancient fishing tillage’s. Therefore, worshiping the "statue of the Goddess here is also their expectation to ap­peal to the Goddess for protecting, supporting and swing them from the sea danger. Every year, Cham people from everywhere often come here in order to do Religious Mass to ask for their rain and other religious rituals.
HonBa is known and admired (by people) not only with its ancient temple but it is also a sheer island in the middle of the sea, attracting everybody by its own beautiful sights with the magnificence of the immense sea, and the poplar hill along the seashore makes the scenery here more beautiful.

 POSHANU CHAM TOWER TEMPLES
The group of Poshanu Cham tower temples are situated on BaNai hill top at PhuHai commune, about 7 Km North - East of PhanThiet city. From the end of the eighth century to the beginning of the ninth century, they were constructed in the manner of HoaLai art architecture - one of Champa Kingdom's ancient art architectural manners, but now there are only very a few of these tower temples left such as some ruins in MySon Holy Land area, HoaLai group (PhanRang) and PoDam one (TuyPhong - BinhThuan) left and only the group of Poshanu Cham tower temples are comparatively integral.
Poshanra is the group of Cham tower temples with the important role among BinhThuan's Cham architectural places of historical interest, from the architectural form to the building technique and art decoration on the body, the rolling domes, the main doors and false ones inside and up to the top. Only the building technique and art decoration on the tower body can evoke quite specific aesthetic factor of HoaLai manner.
 Compared with other Cham towers, until now every year, crowds of Cham people from the nearby areas come here in order to carry out the ritual of appealing for the rain and other religious ones related to their own customs and habits. Another interesting thing is that the fishermen living in the vicinity also come here to appeal for safe sea journeys before they go out to the sea. The group of Poshanu Cham tower temples were repaired, improved and upgraded from 1990 to 2000 and now completed. This place of historical interest was classified as the National art architectural one in 1991 by the Government.

PODAM CHAM TOWER TEMPLES
The group of PoDam (Po Tam) Cham tower temples are located at the foot of OngXiem mountain belonging to the locality of PhuLac commune - TuyPhong district - BinhThuan province, about 11.0 Km North West of PhanThiet city. The building techniques as well as the architectural art are similar to Poshanu tower temple group's, this group had the epoch from half the end of the eighth century to the beginning of the ninth century and they belong to HoaLai art and architectural style.
PoDam Tower is the place where Cham people living in PhuLac and its nearby areas carry out the rituals to worship the Cham Kings every year. Nowadays, the King's Descendant's family ancest