Total area: 2.366,63 km2
Population: 1.681.558
Ethnic groups: Kinh, Chinese, Khmer
City: My Tho City
District: Go Cong Town, Cai Be, Cai Lay, Chau Thanh, Cho Gao, Go Cong Tay, Go Cong Dong Districts.

Tien Giang is one of the provinces which are located in the heart of Mekong Delta with the area of 2.366,63km2 and with the population of 1.681.558 (2004). The history of formation and development of Tien Giang is being connected closely with the whole region of Mekong Delta. Based on the history, in the year 1623 when this region was present the first inhabitants but it was officially recorded after Thanh Hau Nguyen Huu Canh declared and called for exploration in 1698 under the order of Nguyen Lord.

Today, together with the tendency of the nation, Tien Giang is developing step by step by its own strategic position in accordance to the whole province. In the time of opening policy, the tourism industry had brought many advantages for all economic components and even for all of inhabitants here. After 110km on the National Highway 1A from Saigon city, travelers will arrive Cai Be being considered as a wild land where it is always ready waiting the discovery of the travelers.

Cai Be is a district of Tien Giang Province which located on the left hand side of the Upper Mekong River with the population of 275.000 inhabitants (2004). Cai Be used to be the Administrative - Economic and Political Center of South Vietnam which called "Cai Be Dinh" (1732 -1757) and then Long Ho Dinh. Nowadays Cai Be is one of the most important centers for the distribution of the agricultural products, especially the tropical fruits for the whole country and also for the entire region.

The nature is fertile, harmonious; people are opened-heart, hospitality; a distinctive ecological system and the river network of South Vietnam together with a floating market; the cultural features are very distinctive but really special in general are made Cai Be as a Mekong Delta in miniature, a safe and attractive destination for travelers all over the world.

Visiting this place with assistance of Cai Be Tourist and Service Center, travelers will have chance to enjoy the boat trip of on the mighty of the Mekong river for the dreamy and the pleasure moment. Please join with us to discover the "Countryside Civilization" where something news are waiting for your exploration.

ANCIENT HOUSES IN CAI BE

According to the history especially in Cai Be, there were two family’s names which were famous and powerful from the time the Lord Nguyen Phuc Chu settled up Cai Be Dinh (Cai Be District) in 1732 to the time dominated by the French (1945). They were Tran and Phan. So most of the ancient solid houses here which were built before the year 1945 came from these families. They are really the precious treasure to the family and also to the society in general. They are the valuable mark for many historic changes creating the unique feature for native culture. We kindly introduce some well-known and typical houses in Cai Be as below:

a) Mr.Ba Duc's house: (1938, An Loi Village, Dong Hoa Hiep Commune, Cai Be District, Tien Giang Province)

The house is located in the area of 2 hectares, surrounded by the bonsai garden and fruit orchards with many kinds of tropical trees as: Hoa Loc Mango, king orange, green-skinned grapefruit, longan, sapodilla; they are arranged in harmonious position which offers more pleasure space for visiting and enjoying the fruits.

This house was built in the combination of Westen and Easten architecture. It looks the same with the colonial house (Maison d’Epoque Coloniate) from the front view. The floor is 0,5m high above the ground so the water can’t be inside during the flood season. This is the special characteristic which made the difference from the others were built at the same time. The house was divided into two distinctive parts (front and back house). There is a separated space between them, the Sky-yard (or the heaven well) which is used to receive the wind and air outside.

Front house: used to be called the worshipping house which is used mainly for offering the ancestors. There is a wide passage with strong rail (Veùranda) on the main door of the house. The antiques will appear in front of you after crossing over the main door.

Back house: this was the place for the kitchen, dinning-room and warehouse for farming tools for many years ago. However, there is a small area which used for kitchen after the war.

The interior decoration inside includes 3 inlaid mother of pearl cabinets (1924) which placed in “Dong binh-Tay qua” regulation, a box inlaid with dragon shape on the right has “Royal honor conferring diploma” inside which was conferred by The King Tu Duc in 1848-1860.

There are four columns made by ironwood and two parallel sentences inlaid with mother of pearl in the middle of the house which creates the beauty and ancient feature to the whole structure. The content of the sentences are written in Nom letters (similar to Chinese letters).

"Tich duc thang di kim – Xu the duong kim Tu Ma huan"

"Di thien di di bao – Tri than di tinh So tho ngon"

On the wall around the house, there are nine beautiful pictures where nine provinces of the mighty Mekong River were found in each one (the scene of the dragon was depicted from the imagination of lovely river).

b) Mr.Cai Huy’s house: (1860, Hoa Phuc Village, Hoa Khanh Commune, Cai Be District, Tien Giang Province)

This house was built in 1860 by Mr.Huy-Chief of the canton in Hoa Khanh, Cai Be District, Tien Giang Province. The structure is similar to the Hue’s imperial style with a number of meticulous carving objects. Nowadays the house belongs to Mr.Trang Quang Man (or Mr.Muoi Man) is the offspring in 5th generation of Mr.Cai Huy. Tourists can easily find out some precious and valuable objects which some were carried directly from French reflecting the colonial feature of the house.

c) Mr.Kiet’s house: (1924, Phu Hoa Village, Dong Hoa Hiep, Cai Be District, Tien Giang Province).

It is inherited by Mr, Tran Van Binh. It was built on the area of 1000m2, right in the middle of an orchard of 1,8ha at Phu Hoa hamlet, Dong Hoa Hiep commune, Cai Be, Tien Giang province. It comprises of 5 compartments disposed in Dinh letter, with structure of 100 columns of precious wood. Up to the Japanese specialists, that house was built 150 years ago, with the traditional Southern structure.

All decorations engraved on consolidating column structure and walls were laboriously made, bearing the traditional Southern architecture. Through the destruction of centuries and through the past war, the house owner still preserves many antique objects of high historical value. Especially the panel sculpture with flowers of apricot, orchid, daisy, and small bamboo in their soft characteristic traits which show the talented skill of our ancestors.

Thanks to the Vietnamese and Japanese cooperation program. The JICA organization has provided financial support for making investigation and restoration of the Southern antique house program in Viet Nam. That project started in 1998, and executed by both Nu Chieu Hoang University and HoChiMinh City Architecture University. The total is 9 houses, in which, in the Southern part of Vietnam, there are 2 (in Bien Hoa and in Cai Be). Through the survey made on 355 houses at Tien Giang. The one in Dong Hoa Hiep are selected for restoration at the expenditure of 1,5 billion, for the whole architecture and decoration inside, coping exactly to the original. That house was decided to be vestige of the provincial grade on the date of 04/03/2002.

CAI BE FLOATING MARKET

What is the floating market ? This is the market which many activities as: bartering, buying and selling take place in the river from this boat to the others. These activities were appeared and developed along with the history of the Southwestern region.
Why does it appear ? We can image in the simple way that: during the French domination, living condition of local people was so difficult and the land was always hit by the flooding so people had to use the bamboo rafts for their living. Another reason is the transportation was under-developed so the boats were used as the main kind of transportation for traffic and business at this time. For these reasons, doing the business in the river is the ideal and suitable way and this activity was formed an occupation for some of people who still try to reserve it up to now. They were named “The merchant“ to show their career and their lifestyle. There was a proverb that explains the habit of the merchant.
"Dao gi vui bang dao di buon
Xuong bien, len nguon, gao cho, nuoc song"
(No job is better than business, upstream and downstream with rice from market and water from river).
During the French occupation, the market just opened at night to keep away from fighting, paying high tax and people used candle or torch for lighting.
Nowadays floating market becomes the distinctive cultural feature for people who live in Mekong Delta. The local government applies some policies to offer more interest and advantage to attract people around the delta like: rearrange the market, register the temporary residence for “Floating house”, free tax paying...
Cai Be Floating Market is among the others in Mekong Delta such as Cai Rang, Phong Dien, Phung Hiep Floating markets. Up to now, the history of Cai Be Floating Market is still unknown but people believe that it was formed during time of the formation of the delta in 17th to 18th century by people came from the Central of Vietnam. They were the founders of the delta who cultivated and settled down here for years. According to “Gia Dinh Thanh Thong Chi”, Nguyen Lord declared to build the Long Ho Town in Cai Be (called Cai Be Town) in 1732,
Cai Be river mouth where located the Cai Be floating market stretching 500m long is the center for many boats in the delta gathering and trading. This is the place for more than 400 boats doing the business everyday. It is so busy in the morning especially at 5-8am but it opens all day. Each boat has one bamboo stick on the front which used to hang the product of the boat. This is a kind of advertising to show what do the boat sell inside. Local people produce the farming products in the farm or in the garden and then they load them to the floating market. Some people come here to buy the products from the merchants and bring back to the markets in the mainland for selling to the customers.

TROPICAL FRUITS IN CAI BE

Hoa Loc Mango: the name was after the name of Hoa Loc region. People can?t forget the sweet and fresh flavor of Hoa Loc Mango. According to Dr.Nguyen Thi Thuong, Hoa Loc Mango is the top of 120 species which Long Dinh Southern Fruit Institute developed and this fruit won the "The Queen Fruit" title in mango competitions.
The father tree is in Mr.Hai Cong garden now and Long Dinh Southern Fruit Institute had reproduced the cheap seedling to sell for farmers in the whole country. To choose the best one, people must distinguish the big shape, light brown skin from the others.
Cai Be orange: this is the most popular one and had a long history in this region. King and sweet orange can be found in Cai Be, An Huu, Tan Phong Island with the nice and unforgettable flavor. Once you come and taste the specialty here you can?t leave without emotion.

HANDICRAFT VILLAGE

Making pop-rice: the pop-rice workshop located in An Ninh Village, Dong Hoa Hiep Commune, Cai Be District was established many years ago. The procedure of making the pop-rice includes: popping the rice, preparing the caramel, mixing the pop-rice and packing. Depending on the order, people add durian or vanilla flavours to change the taste for the pop-rice.
Local people make many kinds of the pop-rice, pop-corn, pop-noodle...to meet the demand of customers. The pop-corn village in Cai Be with many famous brands as: Ngoc Loi, Cai Be, Cuu Long...had satisfied the people all over region and nationwide.
Making rice-paper: people need a lot of time and labor to make the rice-paper and this kind of activity originated here for many years ago. The ingredients needed to make a rice-paper include: soft rice for the rice flour, stove, big vat to cook water and a bamboo stick to take off the paper. The procedure of making the rice-paper described as below: keep rice in salt water for 1 or 2 hours and grind into flour by stone grinder (make sure that the salt is balanced to make the paper softer), cook the water into boil and cover the vat with cotton sheet, pour the rice flour in the sheet and close the sheet with a big conical hat, wait for 10 seconds and then use the bamboo stick lightly take off the paper from the mound. Finally, people need to dry the rice-paper under the sun for 3-4 hours before sell to the market. The rice - paper is really useful to the Vietnamese cuisine, it will be used to wrap the fish and vegetable to make the roll or the spring-roll, we can dip the roll into the fish sauce to make it more flavors.
Tapioca-paper: this village originated in 1940 and produced the products only for the Tet festival. Nowadays the size and the market of this product have been widening. There are 400 family businesses which located in Zone 4, Cai Be District and An Hiep Village, Dong Hoa Hiep Commune with many famed brands as: Ong Map, Hai Ky, Ba Map, Thanh Tuyen...
The main ingredients for making tapioca-paper comprises with some raw materials in local village as: tapioca, coconut, malt...and the simple engine are replaced with the modern one to increase the quantity and quality to meet the requirement of the clients.
In 2004, Cai Be Economic Office established the project to level up the village included Zone 4, Cai Be District and An Hiep Village, Dong Hoa Hiep Commune with area of 500 hectares in which 2.000 family-run businesses. The project supplies more advantages for registering the trademark, building-up the transportation, electric system and equipping the facility with the purpose of advancement this handicraft village.
Making coconut candy: this village appeared later than the others but it starts to meet the demand in high quality of the clients around the region and nationwide. The materials for making the candy include: old coconut, malt, pandan leaf, chocolate, vanilla, peanut...first of all, they take the juice or milk from the coconut and then they cook the juice with the malt, sugar and some kinds of flavor. Finally, they pack the candy in the rice-paper and wrap again in paper so that you can keep it for a long time and you can use it anytime and anywhere.
Making the brick: the brick factories were built along the Hoa Khanh river mouth and Ba Hop canal where they make the brick, proof and floor tile. They use the raw material from clay which they can exploit from the rice field or from the riverbed in the Mekong Delta. The quality of the clay is very important to produce the best one so people must choose the clay carefully before they shape the brick and arrange inside the kiln.
Dehydrated longan: in the year 2000, the trend of making the dry-longan was developed in Cai Be and some surround provinces. A number of gardeners here chopped down the unused trees and grow longan tree especially the cow-skinned longan (this type of longan is productive and qualified export standard). Most of the owners of the dry longan factory come from the North because they achieve the orders from China, they choose the place where the longan trees are dense to set up the factory. Coal is the essential fuel to the factory, they bake the longan for 7 days. Local people in the village are called for taking off the flesh and then they dry the flesh again before packing into the box for export. The shell and black seed from longan will be sold again to make the fuel and food for animals.
Weaving water coconut leaf: discovering the Mekong Delta, enjoying Southern food, getting together in Southern style house are the most unforgettable memory especially to the one who try to looking for the quiet place to relax and satisfy themselves after hard working days. The thatched house in Southern style is the best one which made by bamboo frame, water coconut leaf for the proof. These materials are found easily in the Mekong Delta. First of all, they cut off the leaf and weave them in the 1-1,5m long sheet depend on the order. One person can weave at least 300 sheets a day to create more jobs for local people.