The first days of March are memorable for the people of Si Ma Cai. The first white pear flower festival held for the first time has brought a lot of joy and hope to this highland locality. Thanks to this event, the people of Quan Ho Than commune and neighboring communes in Si Ma Cai district have the opportunity to promote the impressive beauty of pear flowers as well as the potential and strengths of the locality in the development of beautiful temperate fruit trees, and at the same time introduce many typical local culture.

The Women's Start-up Club for the development of the community in Sa Pa town performs art to serve the tourists.

Coming to the White Pear Flower Festival in Si Ma Cai, the visitors can not only admire and immerse themselves in the pure white color of pear flowers, but also participate in many attractive cultural and artistic activities imbued with ethnic identity such as tug of war, pushing stick, mountain climbing. The activities have left many impressions on the visitors.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong, from Lao Cai city excitedly said: I find it interesting and impressive with the White Pear Flower Festival in Si Ma Cai. In a few months until the fruit season, I will come back to enjoy the sweet fruit and buy it as a gift.

“I am very glad to participate in many interesting activities at the White Pear Flower Festival. I see this as an opportunity to bond with the village, and at the same time preserve and promote the traditional cultural beauty of the ethnic groups in Si Ma Cai. The people can also take advantage of this opportunity to introduce and promote local products. I hope the locality will organize more activities like this", said Ms. Lu Thi Mai, Nga 3 village, Quan Ho Than commune.

According to Mr. Giang Seo Phu, Chairman of the People's Committee of Quan Ho Than Commune, the local government has integrated many unique cultural activities at the White Pear Flower Festival, especially ethnic sports, creating favorable conditions for the people and visitors to learn and experience many cultural beauties. The commune hopes that all levels and branches maintain this activity every year and plan to organize in a larger scale.

For Sa Pa, although it has not organized any large festivals, at all times, Sa Pa has always been the destination that many people love and choose. Although the number of visitors has decreased significantly due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the maintenance of cultural and artistic activities at tourism destinations or each commune has still been carried out.

Ta Van commune is the destination that attracts many tourists not only because of the beauty of nature, land and people, but it also keeps, preserves and promotes many unique and impressive traditional cultural features. The establishment and maintenance of cultural activities of the Women's Start-up Club for community development in Sa Pa town contributes to attracting tourists to Ta Van. The members of the club are divided into many groups in charge of different sectors, such as homestay group, culinary group, brocade group and art group, of which 17 members are active in the arts group.

Ms. Sung Thi Lan, Chairwoman of the Women's Start-up Club for community development in Sa Pa town, said: "Although we are worried about the pandemic, we still maintain the practice and activities of the club's arts group for 1-2 times/week, get ready for the show as soon as having guests. The number of performances depends on the requirements of the ordering unit, but usually we have 7-10 performances for an art program performed at homestays, hotels or markets, tourist areas of the town. Since the Lunar New Year, the members of the club's arts group have performed about 9 shows in many places in the town.

According to Ms. Lan, by maintaining regular activities, the members of the club still have a stable income, contributing to solving economic difficulties for the family. In the coming time, the club will connect with a number of travel and tourism companies in the area, resorts, Sapa glass bridge tourist area, etc. to organize cultural activities and art performances to serve tourists.

Despite facing many difficulties because of the pandemic, trying to maintain cultural and artistic activities in the localities and tourism attractions has been effective, both contributing to preserving and promoting the beauty of ethnic culture, creating an outstanding point to attract tourists, contributing to increasing the people's income, promoting local socio-economic development.