Ghenh Che Lake, with great potential to develop ecotourism, resort tourism and experiential travel

Under Thai Nguyen Province's tourism space development orientation, Tan Cuong has been identified as an area with many advantages for forming green tourism, community tourism and high-quality resort tourism products. The landscape here features a rare combination of water surface, tea hills, forest, and tea-producing craft villages. It is precisely this interweaving that gives Ghenh Che Lake its distinctive advantage: not just a scenic viewing spot, but also a place where visitors can fully experience the identity of the "No. 1 Tea Land."

Ghenh Che Lake has a water surface area of more than 90 hectares, with about 45 islands and peninsulas of various sizes. Viewed from above, the lake's surface stretches out among successive hill ranges, surrounded by pine, acacia and eucalyptus forests and the green tea fields characteristic of Tan Cuong. The beauty of Ghenh Che lies not in excitement, but in its untouched, tranquil and clean character — qualities increasingly sought by visitors amid the trend toward green tourism and nature-based resort tourism.

Unlike tourist areas that have been methodically invested in, Ghenh Che Lake's greatest appeal lies precisely in its still-pristine natural beauty. The open space, clean climate, calm water surface and green ecosystem together create an ideal environment for rest, relaxation and recharging.

Visitors experiencing tea picking in the Ghenh Che Lake area, Tan Cuong Commune

Visiting Ghenh Che Lake, visitors can paddle boats to explore the small islands, fish, camp, take weekend outings, and watch the sunrise or sunset over the lake. The roads around the lake pass through lush green tea hills, opening up opportunities for visitors to learn about the tea production process, experience tea picking, enjoy tea tasting, and chat with tea growers. This is precisely the point that can create a distinctive tourism product: a journey that is both close to nature and steeped in Thai Nguyen tea culture.

The outstanding value of Ghenh Che Lake lies not only in its water-surface landscape, but in its ability to connect multiple layers of tourism resources within the same space: lake, tea hills, forest, craft villages, tea culture, and community life. If well organized, this area could develop forms of ecotourism, agricultural experience tourism, weekend resort tourism, outdoor sports, and community tourism. This is a direction well suited to today's visitor demand for returning to nature, short-term resort stays, and experiencing local identity.

As demand for returning to nature and green resort tourism continues to grow, Ghenh Che Lake possesses many advantages to become an attractive destination in Thai Nguyen. In particular, its location near the provincial center makes it easy for this area to attract visitors from within the Province, as well as visitors from Hanoi and neighboring provinces, for short sightseeing and resort trips.

Ghenh Che Lake area, planned for commercial and tourism development linked to the lake landscape and Tan Cuong specialty tea-growing region

In order to concretize the locality's urban, service and tourism development orientation under the approved master plan, Thai Nguyen Province is studying investment in building the Ghenh Che Lake Eco-Urban Area in Tan Cuong Commune, covering an area of 263.96 hectares. This is regarded as an important step toward effectively exploiting the area's potential and advantages, while also creating a new development driver for the locality. The project will not only help improve land-use efficiency and build a synchronous system of technical and social infrastructure, but will also create conditions to attract investment resources into the fields of services, tourism, and high-quality resort facilities.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Vuong Quoc Tuan and the working delegation listen to a briefing on the spatial development plan for the Ghenh Che Lake area in Tan Cuong Commune

Under the development orientation, the Ghenh Che Lake area will gradually form a modern eco-urban space in harmony with nature, linked to service, commercial, resort and entertainment facilities. Developing this area will not only create distinctive tourism products for Thai Nguyen, but will also help improve residents' quality of life, create jobs, increase budget revenue, and promote economic restructuring toward services and tourism.

With its distinctive natural landscape, favorable location, and unique tea-culture identity, Ghenh Che Lake has sufficient conditions to become a highlight within Thai Nguyen's green tourism space. However, for this "green gem" to truly shine, the development process must be built on the principle of harmony between exploitation and conservation, between infrastructure investment and landscape preservation, and between service development and the livelihoods of the local community.

When the lake, tea hills, craft villages and residents' daily life are connected into a tourism product with its own identity, Ghenh Che will not only be a weekend resort destination, but could also become a space for experiencing tea culture, ecotourism and green development in Thai Nguyen. This is also the direction for the Province to gradually affirm its image as a friendly, distinctive and sustainable destination in the midland and northern mountainous region.