Over the long weekend, while most of Saigon was hiding in cool, air-conditioned places, the northern province of Phu Tho was dealing with an influx of Hung Vuong revelers who made the trek to its historic Hung Kings Temple for the holiday.
By local estimates, the province braced itself for as many as 7 million visitors over the weekend, reports Tuoi Tre. By Friday, deputy director of the Phu Tho Department of Information and Communications Nguyen Thi Tuyet Chinh told media outlets the official count had reached 5.5 million visitors with an additional million or two to come over the following day.
While there was no official count reported after the weekend, photos published on Zing suggest high visitor numbers on Saturday, too. Travelers left their homes as early as 3am to make the journey to Phu Tho's historic Hung Kings Temple, which is located roughly 90 kilometers north of Hanoi. By 7am, a sea of people had already gathered before the gates of the temple complex.
An early morning procession kicked off the day's festivities with traditional performances and parade activities. Several high-ranking officials also turned up to pay their respects to the Hung Kings. When the area officially opened to visitors at 8:15am, it was with relative order that an enormous group of people charged up the steps toward the temple. Still, the sheer number of visitors is a sight to behold, as evidenced by the video below.
Zing even devoted a whole article to the number of children who lost track of their parents and had to be crowdsurfed out of the chaos and into a waiting area where parents could find their missing kids.
All told, Phu Tho officials report the festivities went as smoothly as possible, with no major incidents taking place at or around the temple complex.
[Photos via Zing]
