Bach Ma National Park to be Open Again

By Thu Huong.

Bach Ma National Park was closed to tourists in 2009 for expanding the road to the summit. Work on the road is about to be completed soon and the park is to be open to tourism again in the summer of 2013.

Bach Ma Mountain with the summit of 1,450m above sea level was discovered in 1932 by the French who soon built the area into a hill station for French colonialists to get away from the heat in the Central Region of Vietnam in the summer. At the time, Bach Ma had 139 French-styled villas and the road to the summit of Bach Ma by the French was only of 4-5m wide.

In 1991, Bach Ma National Park was established with the total area of over 22,000 hectares. The protected zone of the park is now expanded to over 37,000 hectares with the fauna system of 1,493 species and flora system of 2,147 species, many of which are endangered species.

The temperatures on the summit of Bach Ma is always 8-10 Degrees Celsius lower than in the low land. In the summer, temperatures at Bach Ma never get above 26 Degrees. And in the winter, the temperatures never drop below 4 Degrees. Bach Ma is a very popular tourist attraction in the summer for both Vietnamese tourists and foreign travelers to Vietnam. The park is 40km from Hue, 80km from Da Nang, and the road from National Road No. 1 to the park headquarters is 19km.