BEN TRE, located at the end-stream of Mekong River, is one of the 13 provinces that make up the Mekong Delta. It faces the South China Sea and provinces such as Tien Giang, Tra Vinh, and Vinh Long. The Province's central point is 86 kilometres from Ho Chi Minh City- one of the largest cities in the country - by road to the North-East. That is, travellers from Ho Chi Minh City should ride (bus or motorbike) Southwest through Long An and Tien Giang provinces before arriving in Ben Tre. The Province's main rivers are Tien, Ba Lai, Ham Luong and Co Chien Rivers, depositing and enriching the soil with layers of alluvium for centuries, and cutting it into three large islets: An Hoa, Bao, and Minh. You can see on the map the land spread into a pie shape, with its peak at the upstream, and the River's branches like the pokes of a big hand-shaped pie spreading out to the East. The Province has a natural land area of 2,315 square kilometres and a population of 1.4 million. It has a flat terrain, with sand elevations intermittantly intermingling with orchards, coconut woods and rice fields. There are almost no woodlands here, and the main land is surrounded with rivers and sea waters.
The people of BEN TRE are very generous, charitable, hospitable, and respectful of talent. They are keen not only to deferentially inherit but also to promote excellent traditional values.Especially, Ben Tre has had its name and position carved into Viet Nam's history after the resonant insurgence of Dong Khoi (Simultaneous Insurgence). The legendary "long hair army" (army of female guerrillas) was born through this revolutionary movement. And, whenever you pay visit to the Province's 12 National classified historical and cultural heritage sites, to the Dong Khoi Traditional House in Mo Cay District (known as the cradle of the movement), or to the relics of one of the important beach-head of the Ho Chi Minh Trail by Sea in Thanh Phu District along the bank of Co Chien River, you will have more insights into the precious cultural landscape of the land, and great hardship and sacrifice that the people of Ben Tre were undergoing to write the most glorious page in the history of Dong Khoi native land.
BEN TRE Province has enormous and diverse economic potentials, with a young, laborous and creative workforce. With a 500-kilometre long grid of rivers and canals, Ben Tre is rich in aqua resources such as species of freshwater fish, shrimp, ... Lush in alluvial soil, Ben Tre has joined other provinces in the region to form the country's biggest rice stock of Mekong Delta. It is also abundant in various other products. There are famous decorative flower gardens and orchards in Cai Mon - Cho Lach, Binh Dai - Giong Trom, which sell out millions of seedlings of fruit trees and decorative plants.
Exclusively, Ben Tre is very well-known as the land of coconut. With the coverage of more than 40,000 hectares, and a wide range of coconut species, Ben Tre is considered to have the largest coconut coverage in the country. Coconut is the main materials to produce coconut candy (or keo dua) - Ben Tre's longtime best known specialty. Then there are other well-tasted products, too, such as My Long rice cake, Son Doc shrimp cake.
