Cua Tung Beach

Waves from the sea meet fresh river water at Cửa Tùng. This is where the Bến Hải River runs out into the sea. The beach belongs to Cửa Tùng commune in Quảng Trị Province.

That meeting of waters gives the beach its character. It is not an even stretch of sand. It is a place where the surf meets the current of fresh water, and rocky ledges reach out into the sea. Their rough, natural shape sets this beach apart from any other. It was once very beautiful, then it became a place of history, and now it is a beach for today's swimmers.

More than 100 years ago, the French looked at this place and saw promise. From 1910 to 1920, the colonial government planned Cửa Tùng as a seaside resort in the European style. Holiday villas, guest houses and walkways along the shore all went up according to the plan. The newspaper VnExpress records that a hotel, the Grand Cửa Tùng, appears in documents from those years. People gave the beach a title: "Queen of Beaches." The name suggests fine white sand, a long gentle shore and a landscape still left to itself.

That title comes from tourism and history. It is not an official honor. The resort buildings from the years of French rule, the villas and guest houses, left no trace after 1945. Most of what the French built here vanished with time and war.

The beach today still has a beauty of its own: the surf at the river mouth, the rocky ledges, and the story of the Bến Hải. The Vĩnh Mốc Tunnels are close by. So are the two banks of the Bến Hải at Hiền Lương. Tourist routes link the beach with Cửa Việt, and with Cồn Cỏ Island out at sea.

The shore has also changed with time. For many years, waves and currents have been eating away at it, and the swimming beach has grown narrower than in its best days. The fine white sand that the French praised long ago is no longer as wide and long as it was. But its beauty is still there, in the sound of the surf at the river mouth and in a name that has entered history.

At Cửa Tùng the gentle Bến Hải flows into the open sea. Rocky ledges reach out into the surf, and the wet sand glitters in the sun. Here river meets sea, and past meets present. A queen who was once proud now tells the story of her life, quietly.