Passengers on night flights to and from Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi have recently been amazed by the national flag image at a dragon fruit garden in Ngoc Thanh Commune.
This is the creation by the members of the Thanh Long Valley Co-operative aimed at promoting local agricultural products through eco-tourism while showing their love for the country.
Nguyen Huu Cong, director of the co-operative, said that the dragon fruit grown in the area for more than a decade has brought economic benefits to many households. To ensure healthy growth, farmers use lights to provide artificial lighting. But, this system of wires and lights is usually only used at specific times and is then dismantled and stored away by the locals. Inspired by this, the farmers came up with the idea of making a giant national flag from the lights.
The flag, spanning 8,800 square metres, was completed by 10 people in one month.
To ensure safety and aesthetics, the team focused on the wiring and connections. The flag required up to 5,000 metres of twisted cables, nearly 2,000 special light bulbs, and many electrical safety devices. One protection device was installed for every 30 bulbs. The work cost around VND100 million (USD3,879).
Thousands of lights used to create the national flag (The photo from the Thung Lung Thanh Long Cooperative)
According to Cong, the most challenging task was ensuring the flag's proportions matched the official national flag ratio. “We had to use a drone to monitor from above and send people up electric poles, making adjustments for around two weeks. After meticulously fine-tuning every centimetre, we were able to have a perfectly balanced flag.”
Many passengers on flights have taken stunning aerial photos of the national flag, Cong added.
Ngoc Thanh Commune is boosting experiential tourism by integrating agriculture, with local residents planting flower fields to improve the landscape. The locality is also home to forest pines with different kinds of pines.
It takes nearly two hours to drive from Hanoi city centre to the commune.
