The mansion of Vuong Family (H’Mong King Palace) is an interesting tourist site, located in Sa Phin Commune, about 14km from the town of Dong Van District. Recognized as a national architectural and artistic relic in 1993, the mansion of Vuong family is an architectural masterpiece of the Mong ethnic people living in Dong Van karst plateau. The mansion is a must-visit place that tourists in Vietnam travel should not skip on their tour in a mountainous province of Ha Giang.
The mansion’s structure is strongly influenced by traditional Chinese architecture with pine woods, terra cotta tiles and Chinese-writing decorations. The two-storeys mansion has 64 different rooms; all are decorated with carvings of dragons, phoenixes, and bats which are symbols of royalty and prosperity. Built from 1919 by the skillful craftsmen from Yunnan (China) and the best of the H’Mong builders, the mansion took 9 years to complete and costed 150,000 silver coins, an equivalent of 150 billion VND today. Vuong Family’s Palace echoes with the history of time past and deserves to be the pride of the H’mong ethnic people.
The road leads to the mansion is paved with boulder. At the entrance, many visitors take photograph with Dui lian. The mansion of Vuong family is situated at 1600 meters height above sea level; the mansion was built in turtle-shaped hill, looking to the south. The structure has shape of word “Vuong”. Through the time, the mansion still retains the original appearance. This place which converges all unique architectures of upland is not large but it has a beautiful architectural structure.
The mansion has three stilted houses. The main house faces the gate, two houses parallel and perpendicular to the main house. All stilted houses were made of wood. The main house is the place of Vuong Chinh Duc, the other houses for soldiers who server and protect the mansion. Apart from the main area, the mansion also was designed living room, pool… These items are built in accordance with the practices of the H’Mong living in highland. The wall is built around with military guards to ensure the security of the whole building. Besides, Ha Giang Provincial museum has display more of its artifacts reflect the cultural life and productive labor of the H’Mong.
Today, the mansion has been classified by the State as the national architectural relic, primarily to serve tourists to visit and learn more about history. The descendants of Vuong’s family were built the houses in front of the mansion by Ha Giang province. Architectural relics of Vuong family mansion is concerned as a green gem in the heart of Dong Van upland.
