Fairy Stream of Xuan Son

On a hot summer day in Phú Thọ, the road is dusty and the air is heavy. Then, in the middle of the limestone forest of Xuân Sơn, a stream comes running out of a cave.

This is Suối Tiên, the Fairy Stream, inside Xuân Sơn National Park. The park lies in the Tân Sơn area of Phú Thọ province. According to the Phú Thọ Tourism Information and Promotion Center, the stream begins in a cave called Động Tiên. It flows out as cool water and forms a natural swimming spot for summer visitors.

What sets the Fairy Stream apart is where it comes from. Water from a limestone cave tends to run colder than ordinary stream water, because the inside of the cave never sits under the sun. So when the water leaves Động Tiên, it carries the coolness of the mountain's heart. The provincial tourism page also names the area of Lưng Trời Falls and the Fairy Stream among the natural water spots that draw the most summer visitors in the Tân Sơn area.

Because the stream lies inside a national park, its setting is unlike ordinary swimming spots. There are no concrete pools and no stalls renting out swim floats. What you find here is forest trees reflected in the water, stones in the stream bed, and birdsong.

Xuân Sơn National Park was founded in 2002. It spreads over 15,048 hectares and wraps around ranges of limestone mountain set among tropical forest. The stream is where the forest's living system shows itself most clearly. Fish, snails, water insects and frogs together make up a network of life that works quietly under every flat stone and in every gap between roots.

Standing by the stream, just listening and looking is enough to settle the heart. Water knocks against stones. Light filters through the canopy and breaks into streaks of gold on the blue-green surface. A fish glides past and vanishes in the shadow of a moss-covered boulder.

One thing is worth keeping straight. In the province's travel roundups there is another place named Ao Giời, Suối Tiên. That one lies in the Hạ Hòa area, not inside Xuân Sơn National Park. The stream in this story is a different place altogether, deep in the core of the Xuân Sơn forest.

After a night of rain, with the water running clear, the air cool and the forest a deep green, the stream becomes one of the most memorable quiet moments of nature in the northern midlands. Out of the cave in the rock comes cold, clear water, carrying the age-old stillness of the mountain.