The Tuy Loan River

Some rivers are known not for their beauty but for being alive. The Túy Loan River is one of those.

It flows through the Hòa Vang area, far from the sound of waves and the lights of the seaside streets of Da Nang. Here life still follows the fields, the village and the roof of the communal house. This is not a river to admire from a distance. The people on both banks have lived with it for many generations.

On the village bank, the Túy Loan communal house stands like a witness. Old communal houses like this are where villagers meet to talk over common matters. They also keep the legends of the village's deity and the memory of the community. They are the center of the village's spiritual life, and no written document can take their place. The communal house and the river beside it have shaped the character of this land together.

Hòa Vang is also the home of bánh tráng. These are not factory-made. They are rice sheets dried by hand on bamboo racks, paper-thin and carrying the smell of rice and sun. Sitting by the river in the morning, you may come across this sight as an ordinary part of the scene. It is not a show put on for visitors.

That is what makes this river different. It does not try to tell any special story. It simply flows, as it did before anyone gave it a name.

In the development plans of Da Nang, the Túy Loan is listed as one of the waterways with potential for boat travel. So a river that was once only a place for villagers to bathe their buffalo and wash their shirts may one day carry boats. Whatever the future brings, the heart of Túy Loan remains that of a village river.

Many things might bring a traveler to Hòa Vang. But pause a little by the Túy Loan. There is still water between two green banks, wind in the rows of bamboo, and the smell of wet earth from the nearby rice fields. Da Nang turns out to be more than the sea.

It has another side, slower, greener, closer to the earth. The Túy Loan River flows right there.