Many people have contributed their work and asset to building the village gate, creating a highlight for tourism development.

We have known Mr. Do Xuan Tua, Ban Pho village from his contributions to volunteer activities with the Join hands for Sa Pa Children Club, through street painting contribution to beautify “Sa Pa- the city ​​in the mist” and the person who has creative ideas with Muong Hoa stone stream river. This time, we were even more impressed with the construction of the Ban Pho village gate to beautify and create a highlight to help the homeland develop tourism.

The idea of ​​​​building a village gate was cherished by Giang A Dung, Deputy Secretary of the Youth Union of Muong Hoa Commune, Head of Ban Pho village after visiting and learning experiences in developing community tourism in Tam Duong district, Lai Chau province (in 2020). He had the idea, but Dung has not had the opportunity to implement it because of lack of funds and has not met enthusiastic people to help. At the end of 2021, Dung met Mr. Do Xuan Tua, he proposed his design idea and encouraged Mr. Tu to participate.

Giang A Dung confided: The way to do community tourism in Lai Chau has left me a lot of impressions, especially the construction of works such as village gates, house gates, both beautifying the village and creating check-in points for visitors. I was fortunate to meet Mr.Tua to help me with design ideas, to call everyone to contribute their works and assets to build the village gate.

As an art teacher from the urban area to go to Sa Pa to work and settle in Ban Pho village for nearly 20 years, Mr.Tua has always been concerned because he has not contributed any meaningful works for his "second homeland". Accepting the proposal of Giang A Dung, Mr. Tua sketched and completed the design idea on paper and started construction when there were enough materials.

"I want to make a distinctive village gate project, bearing the unique identity of Muong Hoa land" - Mr. Tua shared.

Ban Pho village is developing day by day.

Inspired by ancient rocks and forest trees, after many sketches, drawings, and corrections, Mr.Tua completed the design of the Ban Pho village gate, and then joined Giang A Dung to mobilize people and some business households to contribute money to buy materials. After 1 month of construction, Ban Pho gate with pillars of 2 ancient trees growing hugging the rock, connected by branches and leaves with the words "Ban Pho cultural village, Muong Hoa commune, welcome visitors" has been completed. With 2 pillars, Mr. Tua chose to paint moss green to highlight the ancient mossy look, like the ancient forest trees on the Hoang Lien Son mountainous range. The forest leaves were painted yellow like autumn leaves, because Mr.Tua believed that autumn is the most beautiful season in Muong Hoa. The total cost of building the village gate is estimated at nearly 30 million VND, contributed by the people in the village. The entire design and construction part is performed by Mr. Tua and 2 associates, excluding construction costs.

"In the future, I will study more carvings on the ancient rocks to reproduce on the shape of the rock at the village gate column" - Mr. Tua "revealed".

As the owner of homestay business model and selling point for tourists in Ban Pho village, Ms. Vang Co Chan confided: We are very happy that the village gate makes a good impression on visitors. Every day, sitting opposite the village gate, I see many tourists stopping to ask for information and take photos. They enjoy and give a lot of praise for this work. We hope to have more projects creating highlights to make the village more beautiful, contributing to attracting more tourists and developing community tourism.

We has gone to many places, to many localities where village gates were built, but few places have impressed us like the gate of Ban Pho village. Not too fussy, with many details, but Ban Pho village gate is still outstanding and distinctive because it bears the characteristics of Muong Hoa land with rocks and forest trees. Surely with that difference, Ban Pho village gate will help this place retain tourists for longer time, let community tourism develop, and bring stable income for people.