Yên Tử Tourist Site

The area of Yên Tử is made up of a system of pagodas, shrines, towers and forests, belonging to the village of Thượng Yên Công Commune, Uông Bí Town. It is about 40 km from Ha Long City and 14 km from Uông Bí Town.
Situated within the immense arched mountain range of north-eastern Vietnam, Yên Tử Mountain bears at its peak the Ðồng Pagoda: at an altitude of 1,068 m above sea level. The beauty of Yên Tử consists in the majesty of its mountains mingling with the ancient and solemn quietness of its pagodas, shrines and towers.
You can get to Hoa Yên Pagoda at the altitude of 534 m by the cable car system recently put into operation and will see on this peak two 700-year-old frangipane trees. From there, you will continue walking up stairs to pagodas of minor note lined up along the path leading to Ðồng Pagoda. There you will feel like walking on clouds. If the weather is agreeable, from this summit you can admire the dramatic landscape of the northeast of Vietnam.
In spring, Yên Tử attracts a large number of tourists going on pilgrimage and sightseeing. Yên Tử festival begins on the 10^th day of the first lunar month and lasts until the end of third lunar month.
Under the Lý Dynasty, Yên Tử held the Phù Vân Pagoda, with Yên Kỳ Sinh as its warden. But Yên Tử only really became a Buddhism centre when Emperor Trần Nhân Tông surrendered his throne to establish a Buddhist sect called Thiền Trúc Lâm and became the first progenitor with the religious name Ðiều Ngự Giác Hoàng Trần Nhân Tông (1258-1308). He ordered building hundreds of constructions, large and small on Yên Tử Mountain for leading a religious life, sermonizing. After his death, his successor, Pháp Loa Ðồng Kiên Cương (1284 - 1330) the second progenitor of Thiền Trúc Lâm, compiled a set of book “Thạch thất ngôn ngữ” and ordered the building of 800 pagodas, shrines and towers with thousands of value statues throughout 19 years of religious life. Some famous pagodas are Quỳnh Lâm, Hồ Thiền. There is the third progenitor of Thiền Trúc Lâm, Huyền Quang Lý Ðạo Tái (1254 - 1334), in the sermonizing centre of Pháp Loa.
Passing through to the Lê and Nguyễn Dynasties, Yên Tử became the focal point of Vietnamese Buddhism, and was often subject to restorations. It is a meeting place of different styles from various historic periods: visible in the many different designs and decorations that ornate its constructions.