ALL ABOUT TRAVEL TO BAI DINH PAGODA, NINH BINH

Unlike the tour on Trang An ecosystem complex, Bai Dinh pagoda brings a feeling of tranquility, spirit and purity of Buddha land. This is the biggest pagoda with many Asia’s records. That’s why you can’t miss this attractive location when travelling Ninh Binh, the ancient capital land.

The most ideal weather in Bai Dinh and Trang An is from January to March in lunar calendar, or from February to April in solar calendar. The landscape here emerges so beautiful and fascinated in the cool and cosy spring weather. Especially, this is the time of traditional festivals that you can combine your tour and luck worship in Bai Binh pagodas.

However, there are too many tourists also visit Bai Dinh in spring, easily leading to so much noise, crowd, and joistling. If you don’t like that, you can visit Bai Dinh - Trang An in the autumn. It’s very warm and comfortable.

Bai Dinh - Trang An tourism complex located in the Southern of Hanoi, far from Hanoi about 96 kms. To travel from Hanoi to Bai Dinh, you can choose one among these following transportation ways.

There are many buses going from Hanoi to Ninh Binh, departing in Giap Bat station and My Dinh station every day. There is a trip in each 20 minutes, suitable with tourists’ schedule. The price for one trip is between 70,000 and 80,000 VND per each person. When arriving Ninh Binh station, you can take bus or taxi to go to Bai Dinh with price about 130,000 VND for each trip.

If you like saving money and to be proactive in transport, you can ride motorcycle from Hanoi to Bai Dinh on 1A national way to get Ninh Binh city centre. Then follow the guide boards to go to Bai Dinh complex.

Apart from these two above vehicles, you can choose train to go to Ninh Binh train station. After that, you can take bus or taxi to reach Bai Dinh. The train price is from 70,000 to 120,000 VND per seat depending on your selected seat class.

Bai Dinh - Trang An is a huge spiritual tourism complex. So if you don’t have time to walk, you should use electric resort cars to transport in this location. The price for each turn is about 30,000 VND and for return is about 60,000 VND.

Moreover, you can hire tour guide at price about 300,000 VND. 500,000 VND fee for tour guide on both of the former and latter Bai Dinh pagodas to understand deeply the spirit and features of Vietnamese culture. The price to get to Bai Dinh Pagoda Stupa is 50,000 VND.

Bai Dinh pagoda complex area is up to 80 hectares with many famous locations as below.

The Bell Tower in Bai Dinh Pagoda is a superficial construction of reinforced concrete with imitation of wood with an architecture modeled after the ancient bell tower style. On the tower hangs a bell weighing more than 36 tons, engraved with many ancient characters and extremely vivid decorative patterns.

Arhat Corridor is one of the outstanding things in Bai Dinh - Trang An complex. This corridor includes 234 compartments connecting the two ends of Tam Quan. This construction is up to 1052 meters long with 500 statues of Arhats made entirely of monolithic green stone weighing about 4 tons. The statues all have different shapes and expressions depicting 500 emotions of mankind.

Guan Yin Temple worships Guan Yin - Bodhisattva. This temple is constructed with 7 compartments. The middle space is where the statue of Avalokitesvara with thousands of eyes and thousands of hands is placed to save sentient beings. With a massive architecture, the Temple is decorated with many Buddhist patterns such as lotus flowers, bronze cranes. The most prominent is the bronze Buddha statue weighing up to 80 tons and 9.57 meter high.

This is the total Bai Dinh pagoda complex was built before 2005, in the period of Dinh, Tien Le and Ly dynasties.

The temple was built in the "mountain leaning and river looking" position, in which there is a statue of Zen master Nguyen Minh Khong. Legend has it that, once he went to the mountain to find medicine for the king, he accidentally discovered a beautiful cave, the terrain was like mountain leaning, so he built it to worship Buddha. Not only is he a famous and highly skilled physician, but he is also respected as the ancestor of bronze casting. Currently, he is worshiped in many places in Ninh Binh.

Complete 300 steps to reach Tam Quan gate, then you will see two three-way crossroads on the slope. This is the path leading to the Light cave and Dark cave.

Light Cave is a place to worship God and Buddha. The reason it is called Light Cave is that the cave is full of natural light. There are two majestic gods with fierce faces at the gate, deep inside there are statues of Buddha. Going to the end of the cave you will come to the sacred Cao Son temple.

After that, when coming to the dark cave, you will admire a very fanciful scene. Above are stalactites formed by underground water. The stairs of the walkway are decorated very vividly with winding dragons. In the middle of the cave is a natural well that contributes to air conditioning in the cave. There are statues to worship the mother and the fairies. Some other statues placed deep in the rock nooks and crannies will have their own altars.

According to legend, the water in the Jade Well was used by Zen Master Nguyen Minh Khong to decoct medicine for the king and the people. Around the mouth of the well is a stone fence forming a large circle, covering many surrounding trees.

Jade Well has a moon-face shape. The diameter is nearly 30 m wide, the depth is about 6 m. The mouth of the well is built of stones exploited in Dinh mountain. The total area of Jade Well is up to 6000 m2, the four corners are 4 octagonal floors. Stand out in the midst of the view of the temple. The water in the well is fresh and pure, often used as offering water at the temple.

The temple worships the god who governs the Vu Lam mountain region. According to history, this is where Dinh Bo Linh lived when he was a child. The temple was built during the Dinh Dynasty (968 – 980).

In addition to the beauty, the superficiality and the unique architecture, Bai Dinh Pagoda also owns many records such as:

The statue of Shakyamuni Buddha sitting on a lotus in the main hall in Phat Chu's shrine has been recognized by the Asian Record Center as the largest Asian gold-plated bronze Buddha image. The statue weighs more than 100 tons of gold plated pure copper, 10 m high, placed on a 1.5 m pedestal.

The Maitreya Buddha statue sits on the hill to the right of the Three Jewels Palace. The statue is casted in bronze and talls 10 m, weighs 80 tons, located on a hill 100m high above the temple yard.

The stupa is located on the right hand side of Tam The Palace, behind is a statue of Maitreya Buddha from the direction of the main hall. The stupa is 13 stories high with a hexagonal circumference of 24 m. The height of the stupa is 99 m with the number 9 symbolizing longevity and eternity. The architecture of the whole stupa is designed in the direction of Buddhism in the Ly Dynasty and imbued with the spirit of Vietnam. Especially on the 13th floor of the stupa is the place to worship the relics of the Buddha, brought from India.

Bai Dinh - Trang An eco-tourism complex is a famous landmark of Ninh Binh, the ancient capital land. Coming to this place, you cannot miss the specialties such as:

The characteristics of Ninh Binh goat meat are very firm, low-fat and fragrant. Being grazed on the hilly areas, goats have to run and jump a lot, so they have firmer muscles, much less fat than those of goats grazed in the plain. Ninh Binh goat meat can be processed in many different dishes such as rare goat, steamed goat, grilled goat, goat spring rolls, etc.

Once visiting Ninh Binh, you must try dishes from mountain snails. This snails only appear in limestone in rainy season. You will find the sweet, crispy and chewy taste in every recipe of mountain snail like ginger stew snail, chili lemongrass fried snail, and so on.

Besides familiar dishes such as mountain goat meat, swamp eel salad, burnt rice, Ninh Binh is also famous for eel vermicelli. You should enjoy this dish in the morning to feel the essence of the cuisine here. Each strand of vermicelli is tough, the eel meat is fragrant, soft; and the fishy smell has been eliminated along with the rich broth. Surely this will be a dish to help you start a new day full of energy when coming to Bai Dinh.

Coming to Bai Dinh - Trang An, you cannot ignore the swamp eel salad, a food made from fresh swamp eel. With the professional skill of the chef, the fishy smell will be removed, so everyone can enjoy this dish. The food is coated with roasted glutinous rice, and dipped with vinegar sauce, so when you eat it, you will feel the fleshy and spicy taste.

Roasted field crab with guise leaves is one of the famous specialties here. The taste of the dish is very impressed at the first taste. The selected field crabs are the types that live naturally, so the meat is firm and fragrant. After being processed, the crab will have a very eye-catching yellow color with high crispiness mixed with the pungent taste of guise leaves. It is great to eat with white rice.

Here is the list of the best restaurants near Bai Dinh - Trang An that you can try on your tour, like Thang Long restaurant, Huu Nghi goat meat restaurant, Tien Tham restaurant, Thuy Yen restaurant, etc.

Yen Mac fermented pork roll is also one of the favorite dishes of many people. The food is made from fresh pork, then fermented for 1-2 days, so it has a sour savor. Moreover, it has spicy taste of chili sauce. The food is wrapped with guava leaves to keep the delicious flavor and help color more eye-catching.

Many visitors said that Bai Dinh - Trang An inspires a sense of peace and purity in their heart. The landmark around the complex is great limestone mountain acres harmonized with cottages to create a dignified and stately sightseeing.

As mentioned above, Bai Dinh pagoda complex located in the central Ninh Binh province - a prime location. From here, you can easily drop out many nearby places that listed as following.

Bai Dinh pagoda complex is one of the most fascinated and spiritual destinations. However, in order to have a perfect trip to visit here, please remind these below recommendations.

• Bai Dinh is a huge landmark, so you are surely walk so much. Please use trainers for most convenience.
• Inside the temple premises, you may see many attractive souvenirs. But please do not buy them here, the price may be twice or three times. You can buy them in the shops at the foothill, the price would be much better.
• You should keep some changes in your pocket for luck worship or donation.
• If you come here in spring for landmark sightseeing, you should bring with an umbrella to prevent from heavy drizzle. Related news: Kinh nghiệm du lịch Ninh Bình

Justfly is delightful to share with you our experience on Trang An tour. Have a nice trip!