Bang Lang stork garden is located in Thoi An hamlet, Thuan An ward, Thot Not district, Can Tho city. From the center of the city, about 60 kilometers, along National Highway 91B to Long Xuyen city (An Giang), we will see a bridge namely Bang Lang, the stork garden is about 2 kilometers on the left when crossing this bridge.

According to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuyen or Bay Co (the name that the local people called him), the owner of Bang Lang stork garden, initially the garden was only 3.600 square meters with a lot of bamboo and most of the land used for rice cultivation. In 1983, a herd of hundreds of small cattle egret (bubulcus ibis), a kind of stock with black body and white- gray wings), covered fully his garden corner. Surprised, he suggested his family not make noise and chase storks away. However, the herd suddenly left and almost a year later, they came back. In this reappearance, they pulled up many new “friends”, nearly 10 kinds with about 10.000 storks of all sizes. Seeing more and more storks, he discussed with his family members to plant more trees and create garden barriers to prevent strangers catching storks and destroying their nests. Also, he accumulated money to buy more land from neighboring houses to expand the garden. Up to now, the stork garden has been enlarged to 15.000 square meters, with the number of about 150.000 storks; of which, more than 80 percent are bubulcus ibis coromandus, a kind of stock with white plumage, yellow bill and black legs, each weighs about 400-500 grams and many other types of stocks. The smallest type of stock weighs about 150 grams while the biggest one weighs up to 1.2 kilograms.

Ms. Tran Huynh Anh, Head of Thot Not Department of Culture, said that the number of tourists visiting the stork garden of Mr. Bay is more and more crowded, especially in the summer and holidays. Without experience in tourism, Bay Co only operates his own “resort” as a household economic model. Therefore, the district and city has had many projects to support and plan this, which aims to develop Bang Lang stork garden professionally, create safety for visitors and profits for the owner.

First of all, it is an investment to upgrade the infrastructure. Previously, the road to the stock garden is very narrow which is only suitable for two- wheel vehicles. In flooding season, visitors have option to travel to the orchard by boat. At present, the road has been expanded and covered beautifully with concrete; cars can run into the garden and the number of visitors coming to the garden increase. The distinctive feature of the road leading to the resort is that although the road is concretized, the planning project still retains its country life and rusticity in harmony with the overall picture of the ecotourism area with green bamboo trees bending along the road, meandering the Bang Lang channel leading to the orchard. From the distance, among the blue of the bamboos, you were able to see every herd of white storks hovering in the sky as well as heard their calling, their wings flapping.

In addition, Bang Lang stork garden is also invested to upgrade the facilities and services for visitors by the fund supporting tourism development of Can Tho city. Especially, many observatories were built, so that visitors can watch and keep beautiful moments with the stocks without disturbing their living environment. The sanitation system has been built according to the tourism standards, aiming to “add marks” for the area in the eyes of tourists, especially foreign ones. Bang Lang stork garden is also a place that the Thot Not Department of Culture always included in the tourism promotion programs, helping visitors know more and more about the garden. The tourist management from the city to the district regularly and effectively implemented connections among tours with travel agencies to take visitors to the stock garden.

Bay Co shared, thank to the help of the authorities, his family deeply understood the responsibility of guardians of “treasure heaven” in the development of the ecotourism of the stock garden. Through the training courses, field trips to visit the models in the neighboring provinces, his family has applied  many ways  to improve the stock garden to attract more stocks coming to live and have baby stocks. Also, he and other officials mobilized neighboring households not to catch the stocks. Instead, he built a link with them to create a service supply chain, such as car keeping, binoculars renting, and rowing boats along the canals to look at the stocks. In addition, Bay Co’s family has been supporting to access to loans with more than VND 1 billion at low interest rates to expand and enrich the tourism services. With this source and the guidance of experts, Bay Co said his family would look forward to buying more land to expand the stock garden, clear the canals and plant more trees. Regarding the long-term development orientation, his family will think of home- stay and experience travel when tourists can participate in the rescue of young storks felling down from their nests and take care of wounded stocks ... but they must ensure security, safety, especially do not frighten the stocks, chasing them away.