In the Hiep Thanh area of Bac Lieu (Bạc Liêu) on the Mekong Delta coast lies an old longan (nhãn) garden where several thousand ancient longan trees over 100 years old remain. The trees took root in land that people who migrated from the north and center in the 19th century opened up on the coastal sand, and locals have long known it as the "old longan garden" (vườn nhãn cổ). In one corner, 4,000 square meters, a young man who left a career as a flight attendant developed the site in 2021 and opened it as a tourist farm to enjoy the harvest and southern life. Its name isMinh Duc longan orchard(vườn nhãn Minh Đức). It lacks the flashiness of a durian orchard, but for Japanese travelers touring the Mekong, it makes a hidden spot for a quiet day away from the crowded standard sights.
Truong Minh Duc left an airport job and remade his grandfather's 4,000 square meters
The orchard is run by Truong Minh Duc, once a flight attendant based at Tan Son Nhat Airport. He returned to his hometown in 2021 and remade the 4,000-square-meter longan orchard his grandfather left behind. Rather than cutting down the trees and replanting with new crops, he chose to keep the century-old trees alive as they were and invite people in for an admission fee. He set up a play area for children and made it possible to walk in the shade and pick ripe fruit by hand. It was a decision to preserve the native landscape inherited from his grandfather through opening it up, not felling it.
Fruit picking layered with local food and don ca tai tu; in season, 2,000 visitors come each month
Fruit-picking isn't all you can experience. Walk beneath old, fruit-laden trees to pick ripe longan, taste southern regional dishes, and, within the orchard,don ca tai tu(đờn ca tài tử, southern traditional music and a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage). You hear the history of how the land of Bac Lieu was opened, and take photos against rare old trees. Rather than buying and selling fruit, it's built to sell time and experience itself. In the longan season, this orchard alone draws about 2,000 visitors a month, it's said.
Administratively, Bac Lieu was merged into Ca Mau province in the 2025 reorganization. But the name "Bac Lieu's old longan grove" and the trees themselves, standing by the sea for more than a century, don't change. Longan, which grows even in the salty sandy soil of the coast, is also a crop that has supported life on this land since it was first settled.
Tourism revenue outstrips fruit sales, and a century of tree age becomes a barrier no one can copy
What this garden shows is a shift in how farmland is used. A 100-year-old tree is, by production efficiency, inferior to a young one. Even so Duc chose to open it rather than fell it, building separate income streams from admission, food and experiences. Reporting has it that income from tourism services exceeds fruit sales. Age itself becomes the product, and since 100 years can't be bought by replanting, it forms an entry barrier other gardens can't easily copy.
The same idea is now in motion across the Mekong Delta. My Tho'sOn Thoi Son island, a two-hour queue for the small-boat river ridebecomes available, andIn Can Tho, a food festival and the floating markethas become the axis of the tourism. As famous spots grow saturated, a move to turn 'still-unknown sites of primary industry' into experiences is rising as the next thing to absorb demand.
Choosing to open it without felling the trees creates the experience of a quiet day
Century-old trees never come back once replanted. By choosing to open the grove rather than fell it, Duc turned a quiet stretch of time—walking slowly beneath old trees and picking fully ripe fruit by hand, unlike a crowded standard spot—into a tourism product. National papers including Thanh Nien have covered the grove on the ground not just as a rare orchard but as a regional resource worth protecting.
Plan on Grab to reach Bac Lieu, and visit in the longan season (summer)
The Minh Duc longan orchard is in the Hiep Thanh area on the sea side of Bac Lieu town, and from the town, a Grab car or motorbike taxi is realistic. Longan season generally concentrates in summer, so if you're after the harvest experience, pick your timing. From Ho Chi Minh City, the setup is to take a long-distance bus to Bac Lieu and head to the orchard from there.An Giang's Long Xuyen-style com tam—touring alongside local foods from around the Mekong Delta makes a day trip richer. Longan is a fruit you rarely see in Japanese supermarkets, and picking and eating it straight from the tree becomes a travel memory in itself.
