Located in the northern suburbs of Yangzhou City (Jiangsu Province, China), Duyen Ho Village, formerly known as "Fish Flower Village", is very poor and backward. Local people still have a saying: "Foolish men do not marry fisherman's girls, foolish women do not marry fisherman's boys".

However, in recent years, this place has become a hot spot when taking advantage of the cultural identity of fishermen, opening the way to develop rural tourism with the "afternoon fishing song" style, becoming the widely known "most beautiful fishing village".

The transformation journey of Duyen Ho fishing village

Formerly, Duyen Ho village, belonging to Phuong Hang town, Han Giang district, located on the west bank of Thieu Ba lake, was the only fishing village in Duong Chau city.

The land area of ​​the village is only 0.8 km² while the water surface area is up to 61.5 km². Transportation is inconvenient, villagers live mainly by fishing and aquaculture, many people use boats as houses.

In 2007, taking the opportunity to protect the ecosystem along the Grand Canal connecting Beijing and Hangzhou, Duyen Ho village promoted a project to bring fishermen ashore.

The village leaders and villagers turned 600 acres of wasteland and ponds into flat land, building rows of small houses with white walls and black tiled roofs. Over 300 households who had lived on boats gradually moved into new, spacious and bright houses.

"In October 2020, the last fishing household finally settled ashore, ending their history of drifting on the water," said Mr. Luu Duc Bao, village party cell secretary.

After the ecological conditions were improved, the village developed the recreational fishery industry by exploiting the unique fishing culture, preserving traditional fishing, and successfully implementing the development transition process.

Culture creates momentum

In 2011, Mr. Luu led the young people in the village to go from house to house to collect fishermen's songs, fishing techniques and fishing customs, and compiled them into a book. That year, the village also held a fishermen's culinary culture festival, gradually building its own unique cultural brand and attracting tourists.

Following the trend, Duyen Ho village takes the construction of the "hidden area in Duyen Ho village" as a breakthrough in the transformation process, developing unique culinary services, fishermen's motels, experiencing fishing activities, and expanding channels to increase income for people.

Seeing their hometown develop, many young people have returned to start their own businesses. Tô Tô, a third generation of a fishing family, born in 1994, is the first university student to return to her hometown to start a business.

In 2016, she established the first rural tourism cooperative in Yangzhou, adopting the "Internet + recreational fishing" model, building a rural resort complex "Fisherman and Woodcutter" with the experience of enjoying lake products, staying by the lake and admiring the lake scenery.

She also collaborated with female fishermen starting businesses in the village and 9X generation students to establish the livestream team "My Ngu Nuong" to support the consumption of agricultural products, bringing local specialties such as dried shrimp, Gam rice, red lotus seeds and creative cultural products to sell online. Currently, there are 16 university students returning to Duyen Ho village to start businesses.

Mr. Luu Duc Bao shared that Duyen Ho village has gradually transformed from traditional primary production to integrating production and services, from fishing to tourism development.

To date, the village has established 15 community tourism facilities operated by fishermen, 8 rustic guesthouses, with tourism revenue last year reaching 30 million yuan (about 106.8 billion VND), and has been continuously recognized with many prestigious titles.