"The Sun is shining brightly, listening to the legend of the young couple who love each other head over heels, but cannot get married... Hoh...ooh...oh...”

The beautiful lyrics in a sweet song that tells the legend of Nui Coc Lake, many people know it by heart and dream of travelling to the lake which, as the legend goes, is made of the tears of a girl who cannot marry the man she loves.

Passing uneven fresh tea hills and gentle streams, you will be greeted by immense emerald rice fields along the way to Nui Coc Lake. The 18km of windy roads from Thai Nguyen City’s centre to the lake are lined by tea-terraced fields on hills, and gentle rivers under a blue sky. The mystical Nui Coc Lake always surprises tourists with its legendary beauty. The scene is more like a water-colour painting than a real landscape.

The legend behind...

The legend has it that there was a couple loving each other very much but their love did not become true due to their different social positions. Generations of the Vietnamese are all able to tell you the beautiful but sad love story of the couple Cong and Coc that relates to the lake, as far as I remember that "One pained person cries and the tears have become a river. One person who spent a life waiting becomes the mountain."

The tragic tale of families tearing a couple apart is like a Vietnamese Romeo and Juliet. Coc’s family is too poor, and the girl’s rich, mandarin family forbids him from marrying her. Their interference only makes the couple more determined to wait for each other. One day, the sound of the flute Coc uses to call for Cong does not reach Cong’s room. Hopeless for his lover, Coc dies of a broken heart.

The love story finished when the boat reaches the bank for tourists to take another travel on Nui Coc Lake in a ship...

... to the Palace of Legend

Visitors to Nui Coc Lake can take a trip to one of the favourite stops upon arrival, that is Huyen Thoai Cung (Palace of Legend) which includes statues made by 50 artisans from Nam Dinh Province. Hopping on a little bamboo boat that runs along the narrow Luoi River in a grotto, a symbol of Cong’s tears, you can live out the legend of Cong and Coc as passing little statues and scenes that tell the whole story. Palace of Legend is a cultural tourism work. The man-made system of caves has been designed by architectures on an area of 3,000 square meters. Standing by the gate of the tourism site is statues of Cong and Coc. The Palace legend is 100 meters from the gate.

The appearance of the Palace Legend is like a mountain range with the statue of male fairy holding a bamboo stick, presenting the good fighting against the bad. Inside the palace, there is a man-made stream flowing around the cave. Sitting on small boat, tourists can look at scenery of the two sides. System of cave and architectural works has recounted by pictures the legend of Cong and Coc.

The mystical Nui Coc Lake really surprises tourists with its incredible beauty. It is certainly that you will be sedured the water-colour painting landscape of the lake.

(Hanoitimes)