The single-string cable car system slides over the rolling hills of Central Vietnam at a height of over 1,000m and I’m left speechless at the spectacular views. Staring out the window I can’t help but wonder how this amazing achievement of engineering was executed. Thousands of workers toiled for over 400 days in intense heat and pouring rain and now here I am floating effortlessly to the peak of Ba Na.

Hoang Van Thieu, the deputy director of Ba Na Cable Car Service Joint Stock Company, still shivers at the thought of hacking his way through the forests on an exploratory excursion at the end of 2007. A team of eleven people from the company surveyed the foot of Ba Na mountain in search of a site for the initial project base on Dinh Vong Nguyet (Moon Viewing Hill).

The task at hand was to move 9,000 tonnes of materials halfway up the mountain to construct pylons for the cable car system. A cable haulage system was first installed just to transport the materials. Now looking down into the forest below from a cable car, Thieu is deeply moved by the sight of the old thatched cottages where the team stayed during the early days of the project. As we travel above each pylon, Thieu can trace the progress of the project in his memory.

When he went in search of a lodging-house in An Loi hamlet of Hoa Ninh village, he recalls how the locals were indifferent when he talked about a major cable car project in the area. The locals said they had heard talk of such projects before but nothing ever happened. Seeing would be believing. Thieu didn’t say anything else as it was company policy not to talk about the project until it had been successfully implemented.

When that day arrived, there were only a few members of the company around. When the first cable car sailed through the air there was no fanfare or fireworks. Locals from An Loi hamlet looked up into the sky above and were completely dumbstruck.

Record breaking system

The Ba Na cable car system was constructed to international cable car standards with Austrian technology and equipment imported from Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. The cable car system has 22 pylons and 94 cabins and can carry 1,500 passengers per hour. It takes 15 minutes to ride up Ba Na Mountain on the cable car at an average speed of six metres per second compared with 55 minutes by car along a narrow, winding road.

According to the world cable car association, this cable car system has set two world records: it is the world’s longest single string cable car system at just over 5km and has the largest height difference between the upper and the lower stations (1,291m). In addition to these two world records, it has also set a number of regional records.

Its departure station has a floor space rated as the largest in Southeast Asia with an exhibition area displaying photos, pictures and documents on Ba Na. The exhibition area has been constructed in the style of a Hoi An communal house. In Asia there are a number of famous cable car systems, such as the one linking Faber hill to Sentosa (Singapore), Malaysia’s Genting cable car system, and Hong Kong’s Lantau. However, the Ba Ba project which was made with an investment of VND300 billion has surpassed them all.

According to Vu Huy Thang, the director of Ba Na Cable Car Service Joint Stock Company, the Ba Na Cable Car System not only transports passengers up and down the mountain but is also an attractive tourist product in itself. To put it simply, people will come just to ride in the cable car. In the past it took 50-60 minutes to go by car from the foot of the mountain to the peak along a narrow and winding road with many dangerous bends.

Now it takes just 15 minutes to ride up Ba Na Mountain. Ba Na has long been known as a mountain paradise with a pleasantly mild micro-climate similar to what you will experience in Sapa, Tam Dao or Dalat, although unlike these mountain towns there is seldom any rain in Ba Na.

Tourists coming to Danang can now conceivably spend the morning at the beach then take the cable car to Ba Na in the afternoon. From the deep blue sea to the heavens above, visitors to Quang Nam province can now experience the extremes of Vietnam’s natural beauty.

VietNamNet/Time-out