Chi Lang Nam Stork Island

It is called the stork village because the village has asmall island located in the middle of a broad lake with ten thousands of storksand herons residing and nesting. With an area of more than 3,000m2, the storkisland is home to 15,000 storks and more than 5,000 herons of various kinds andsuch rare and precious birds as pelicans and teals residing together.

Located in the middle of thevast lake, the stork island emerges as a pearl endowed by the nature for ChiLang Nam. The local residents still tell each other the legend of thisland. It is said that at the beginning of the 15th century,deluges broke the large dyke along the Red River for threeconsecutive times. At the second breakage, an island emerged in the middle ofthe lake. Then, "birds perch good land", each herd of storks, heronsand water birds come here from everywhere. With the time, storks and heronsresiding in the island are more and more crowded in the quantity anddiversified in species.

From September to Aprilevery year, most storks can be seen with up to ten thousands of storks andthousands of herons perching in close proximity to one another on the bambootops and tree branches like flowers filled with white cotton from a remoteview. They get together to nest, lay eggs and nurse their babies. The touristsare more excited to see young storks with immature legs on soft bamboobranches. When the sunset is down, the storks return home. They fly into herds,each herd including 50 to 70 storks, even hundreds of storks creating truewhite curtains on the trees in the island. After flying for many times coveringthe whole lake space, they land safely on the green clump of trees in themiddle of vast sea in the glow of sunset. It is followed by spans of the heronspending search for food at night. The tourists will witness an interesting"chorus" of families of storks and herons. The stork island isexcited with sound like a natural chorus tearing a quite atmosphere of aVietnamese village.

Tourists who come to thestork island in the season need only one day to visit the whole island. A smallboat that is arranged so as not to disturb the living environment of the storkswill slowly take the tourists around the lake and see the life of storks.However, if the tourists expect to watch the life of storks more carefully,please stay overnight on the stork island. From 9.00 to 10.00, the storks comeback most. The family reunion also starts from this time to the next morning.At that time, the tourists will have more time to study the life of storks onthe island.

The harmonious intercalationbetween trees, birds and lake together with fresh, ventilated tropical weatheras well as such historical and cultural monuments as temples, pagodas andtraditional trade villages such as fish nursery, rice pancake, decorativeplant, Chi Lang Nam has full factors to become a typical ecological touristarea for the North Vietnam village. Hai Dương Tourism has made the tour on ChiLang Nam Stork Island a new tourist product of the province.

Hai Anh(VTR)