Van Phuc Village

Van Phuc is situated on the bank of Nhue River, 10km from Hanoi on the southwest motorway. The village is in the centre of Ha Dong Town, Ha Tay Province, and the biggest silk production village in Vietnam. The sound of looms has filled Van Phuc for a thousand years, and is a touching sound to villagers when returning from far away.

The main road is surrounded by greenery and ponds, and colourful bolts of silk drying on the road. In fact, the village's fine silk, commonly known as Ha Dong Silk, has inspired many poets and composers to write about its beauty.
 

Visitors to the silk village in Van Phuc commune, Ha Tay province, are impressed at first sight. The village is busy with activity and one can hear the sound of power-looms in every home. The days of working strenuously with traditional, manual looms are past, and the village's weavers each operate three large power-looms using a small electric motor instead. Design of Ha Dong silk patterns has also been computerized, which has allowed designers to reduce work time from 20 days to a rapid 3 days per pattern.

Many families in the village have built their own shops at the top of the road to the village, along with eye-catching signs in both Vietnamese and English. Saleswomen are friendly and can speak a little English and French, which has been positively received by foreign visitors.

Given that each power-loom has generated one weaving job (not including supplementary jobs such as spinning, dyeing and yarn joining), the craft village can create more than 1,000 jobs each year.

"Although Vietnam invests billions of dong each year in every state textile enterprise, the efficiency they gain may fall behind the craft in Van Phuc. Meanwhile, more than 1,000 craftspeople in the village have worked hard to survive in the market-led economy and at the same time preserve the traditional occupation. However, the State has not yet given them much attention," said the Van Phuc Commune Party Secretary. This feeling may be shared in ther craft villages struggling to sell their products throughout the country.