Only 10km to the west of Hanoi, the thousand-year-old Van Phuc village still keeps its traditional features, which are seen along village lanes in craft workshops, where manual looms are preserved, despite the powered ones that are gradually replacing them in many families, or in the image of the village market, located right at the centre of the village, or in the curved roof of the communal house and moss-covered ancient gate.

In the sunlight of an early winter day, the village is ablaze with colourful waves of silk spreading over the fields.

Alongside the village road, now asphalted, colourful shops are filled with clothes, handbags, and bolts of various types of silks.

From old looms, Van Phuc weavers have created beautiful types of silk with various vignettes. The most famous is “Van” (meaning “cloud” in Chinese). The village artisans got the idea of making Van design from flowers and clouds they imagined in the summer sky.

The Queen of the silks, “Gam” (brocade), is embroidered silk, and much thicker than Van. In the past, Gam was produced to make kings' dresses and its production demands high skills from weavers. In feudal times, when a Ga” pattern was produced, it used to be destroyed to confirm that the piece was unique. Three generations of a producer’s family would be killed if a second run was made.

Other types of silks include “Sa”, which is very thin and shimmers in the daylight, “Xuyen” which is similar but sparser, or “Linh”, which has a shiny surface and is worn by women for traditional Lunar New Year festivals (Tet).

Stories from Van Phuc say that about 1,200 years ago, a woman from northern mountainous Cao Bang province, A La Thi Nuong, who was skilful in weaving, followed her husband to live in Van Phuc village. She taught villagers her weaving skills and after her death they honoured her as the village's tutelary god.

Today, the work of artisans is not done by hand. Silks now are woven by power looms. Pattern designs have also been computerised.

Silk in feudal times was produced only for royal families and people of high rank. Nowadays, Van Phuc silk has become more popular and is sold widely with prices suitable to customers' wallet. Van Phuc silk boom can be seen along the streets of Hanoi, particularly in the old quarter, where various silk products such as clothes, handbags, pictures and lanterns are sold. Vietnamese women today love to wear gentle and glossy Ao Dai or charming jackets made from silk.

Van Phuc silk also crossed the continental border to appear at fairs in Marseille and Paris, France, in 1931 and 1938. It was praised as a sophisticated product of Viet Nam and much appreciated in France, Thailand and Indonesia. Since 1958, silk has been exported to many countries, earning hard currency for the country.

Van Phuc village now has 785 households engaged in the craft, representing 60 percent of its total households. It has about 1,000 looms, providing temporary jobs for about 400 labourers. Every year, the village produces 2.5-3 million sq.m of silk, earning about VND27 billion from silk sales, making up 63 percent of its total revenues. More and more silk shops have opened, forming three streets of silk with over 100 shops to meet the increasing demand.

According to president of the Van Phuc Craft Association Nguyen Huu Chinh, silk products of the village are mainly sold in the domestic market and the high peak of silk production is in spring and summer.

The export of silk has not developed due to unstable quality of silk and poor advertising activities. Silk materials are sourced from many localities nationwide, and still made manually.

Mr Chinh said his association will carry out a project to build a 15-ha concentrated production area on the edge of the village in order to alleviate pollution. The project will require VND60-70 billion of investment in infrastructure construction.