Square: 867,8 km2
Population: 2501,5 thousands people (2010)
City: Bac Lieu
Districts: Hong Dan, Vinh Loi, Gia Rai, Dong Hai, Phuoc Long, Hoa Binh
OVERVIEW:
Bac Lieu Province situated in the Mekong River Delta. It shares its border with Can Tho City and Soc Trang Province to the north, the East Sea to the south, Ca Mau and Kien Giang provinces to the west. Bac Lieu has many large rice paddies and fertile land, which make a good condition for fruit tree planting.
HISTORY:
Bac Lieu province was set up on 20 December, 1899 after split from Ha Tien province, consisting of 7 areas: Long Thuy, Quan Xuyen, Quan Long, Quan An, Thanh Hoa, Thanh Hung and Long Thoi.
Then Vietnam authorities devided Bac Lieu province into two provinces: Bac Lieu and An Xuyen. The later Bac Lieu consisted of 4 districts as Gia Rai, Phuoc Long, Vinh Loi and Vinh Chau, 19 communes and 218 hamlets, and its population was 76,630 people in 1965.
In 1976, after the independance of Vietnam, the two provinces Bac Lieu và An Xuyen was merged again into one province namely Minh Hai. On November 6th, 1996, Minh Hai province was devided into two provinces Bac Lieu and Ca Mau.
In the old time, Bac Lieu was known as the land for entertainment with plenty of legends of “Bac Lieu’s fop” because the people here are very open-minded, fond of making friends through festivals and communal cultural activities. This land was not only the home to the very famous musician Cao Van Lau, the composer of a long-living folk song named “Da co hoai lang”, and also extremely attractive to the class of big landlords in the South at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.
Therefore, many visitors are very surprised at the luxury villas here which were built according to the Western architectures, much differently from the French buildings in Hanoi, Saigon and Dalat. The special thing is that all of the materials for interior decoration of these buildings such as doors, bricks, wall or flooring marble tiles were bought from Paris by the big landlords.
GEOGRAPHY:
Bac Lieu Province situated in the Mekong River Delta. It shares its border with Can Tho City and Soc Trang Province to the north, the East Sea to the south, Ca Mau and Kien Giang provinces to the west. Bac Lieu has many large rice paddies and fertile land, which make a good condition for fruit tree planting.
CLIMATE:
The weather is divided into two seasons: rainy and dry seasons. The annual average temperature is 24ºC
TOURISM:
Bac Lieu Town is on side of Bac Lieu Canal, 10km from the sea. Bac Lieu residents grow rice, fruit trees, catch seafood and make salt.
Bac Lieu used to play importance role in exploitation and developing of French colonialists so that the province has existed several western-style villas and palaces.
Coming there, tourists have more knowledge about very rich and popular Bac Lieu Mandarins. And they can visit the Bac Lieu Bird Reserve, unforgettable taste longan gardens, Viet Hung old Tower, Xiem Can Pagoda or discover mangrove cajeput forest.
TRANSPORTATION:
Bac Lieu is 280km from Ho Chi Minh City, 67km from Ca Mau, 50km from Soc Trang, and 113km from Can Tho. The National Highway No. 1A crosses the province and links to Soc Trang and Ca Mau provinces.
