Hải Dương

Con Son's forest steps and Kiep Bac between Hanoi trains

Hai Duong's sights fit into one day by car: Con Son pagoda and its forest steps, where the scholar Nguyen Trai spent his last years, then Kiep Bac Temple, Tran Hung Dao's old base, and the Chu Dau pottery village on the way back. Arrive on an early train from Hanoi and leave on a late one.

Leave your bag at the station and hand the day to a driver.

Head north-east into Chi Linh. At Con Son, the pagoda sits at the foot of a forested hill, and stone steps climb from there through the trees towards the ridge. A temple near the pagoda honours Nguyen Trai, who drafted the 15th-century proclamation of victory over the Ming. Higher up, the views open over the lake and the delta.

After lunch, drive the few kilometres to Kiep Bac Temple, set beside the river where Tran Hung Dao built his base against the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. On the way back, detour to Chu Dau in Nam Sach, the village whose blue and white pottery was shipped across Asia in the 15th and 16th centuries and has been revived in workshops today.

Banh Gai from Ninh Giang, Cha Ruoi and the Thanh Ha Lychee

Take home banh dau xanh, the boxed mung bean cakes, bought fresh in town, and banh gai from Ninh Giang. To eat on the spot, time your visit: Thanh Ha lychees sell from late May into June, and cha ruoi, cakes of sea worms from the Tu Ky rice fields, appear for a few weeks in late autumn.

Fresh banh dau xanh bought in town are softer than the boxes in Hanoi gift shops. From Ninh Giang district comes banh gai, a black, chewy cake coloured with ramie leaf and filled with mung bean, coconut and pork fat, wrapped in dried banana leaf.

In late autumn, the coastal rice fields of Tu Ky release ruoi, small sea worms that rise with the tides for a few weeks; they are fried into cha ruoi, rich omelette-like cakes with dill and orange peel, a delicacy northerners plan around. Early summer belongs to the Thanh Ha lychee, thin-skinned and sweet, sold by the roadside in bundles of branches from late May into June. Arrive in the harvest weeks and the orchards east of town sell straight from the trees.

For an everyday meal, look for banh da ca ro, a bowl of flat rice noodles in a broth made with freshwater perch, found in small eateries around the centre.

Lychee weeks, monsoon downpours and the Kiep Bac Festival

March, April and November are the most comfortable months around Hai Duong. Winter is cool and dry with grey drizzle, while May to September is hot, with heavy afternoon storms peaking near 300mm of rain in August. Con Son and Kiep Bac hold a spring festival after Tet and Kiep Bac a larger one in autumn.

December to February has highs around 20C, lows near 14C to 15C and barely 20mm of rain a month, fine for climbing at Con Son. March and April warm into the mid to high 20s.

From May the heat arrives, with highs of 31C to 33C through September. Rain climbs with it: about 230mm in June and July and almost 300mm in August, often in heavy afternoon storms, with typhoon tails from the Gulf of Tonkin possible later in the season. October is drier, at about 130mm, and November drops to around 55mm with highs of 26C.

Festivals follow the lunar calendar. Con Son and Kiep Bac hold a spring festival in the first lunar month, when pilgrims climb to the pagodas after Tet. The larger autumn festival at Kiep Bac falls around the 20th day of the eighth lunar month, the anniversary of Tran Hung Dao's death, usually in September or October, and draws crowds from across the north. Both sites joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2025, so expect busier weekends than before.