Not far from Hanoi, there is a place with a unique beauty seen as a place of Heaven which is associated with legends of descending fairy and sacred Udumbara (Buddhism) flower that blossoms once every thousand years called Da Bac Hoa Binh. This will be an ideal destination for tourists after a long trip visiting the famous attractions in the bustling cities like Hanoi. From the city center, Hanoi, approximately 33km to the west of Xuan Mai town (Quoc Oai district) and going about 5 km to the south, visitors will arrive at Coc Mountain, the place of Da Bac Cave – Silver Stone Cave.
Silver Stone Cave is also known as Tien (Fairy) Cave. According to the legend, during a time descending to earth, becoming so engrossed with the natural scene in the mundane world, fairies have gotten lost in Da Bac Cave. Its beauty made them not want to come back the heaven. When the Jade Emperor knew this, he got angry, closed the heaven door and did allow them to return to heaven. They stayed there, year after year and transformed into the cliff. Since then, Da Bac Cave has been called Fairy Cave located in the heart of Pai Day Mountain (or Hang Beo Mountain) belonging Da Bac hamlet, Lien Son commune, Luong Son district, Hoa Binh province. From a far distance, this mountain looks like a giant frog.
Da Bac Cave was discovered by a local in 1990. With a length of nearly 70m, 22m at the widest point and 15m at the highest point, it consists of 3 small caves including Co Tien (Fairy), Long Tien and Mau. Through the main entrance (about 1 m wide, 2m high), visitors will step up a few stone steps to go up to Tien Cave. This place has the rocks shaped like a toad, turtle, terraced fields … and stalactites from rock ceiling like a curtain. When knocking by hand, the stalactite ranges will emit the sound of a gong. In particular, there is a small lake established from water flowing down from the ceiling over the years. Near the lake, there is an altar worshiping the statue of a toad.
Going through Co Tien Cave, visitors will come to Long Tien Cave – where will make visitors surprised by the populations of stalactites that were formed looking like the castle. Sunlight can light in Long Tien Cave by a small gap in the ceiling of the cave.
At the end of the journey, visitors will come to Mau Cave – a very special place because it seems that a fairy world is converged to this place. Stalactites hang down in clusters lighting up many colors like red, green, purple and yellow. Mau Cave situated has the stalactites with the shape of a fairy beside Thach Sanh sitting under a tree that is opposite the Saint Giong riding an iron horse and flying to the sky. Based on the imagination of locals, each saint, the legendary character is shown up vividly. This place has a tower keeping 7 antiques offered by residents.
A unique feature of Da Bac is Udumbara flowers with white petals like white tiny fibers. The top of each flower has a thing looking like a small glowing pearl. This is considered a sacred flower bringing good things.
It will be a place for you to learn and discover the mysteries of nature so that you can have the most comfortable moments after hard working days. With mysterious and sacred beauty, in every step into Da Bac Cave, visitors will be satisfied more curiosity. And until you go into the cave, visitors learn that in spite of hundreds of times visiting this place, it still has many corners that you can not catch it all. Therefore, this will be an unforgettable experience if visitors go there at least once to admire and discover the wonders of this site.
