According to the genealogy, when Emperor Lê Thái Tổ began to doubt Trần Nguyên Hãn's loyalty, the general took the initiative to take his wife and three sons from Thanh Hoa prefecture to the beach where is present Diễn Châu to flee.

In the meeting took place on the morning of August 16, 2023, the People's Committee of Nghệ An province issued the decision to approve the planning for construction of Diễn Châu rural district, Nghệ An province, in the time of 2021-2030, with vision to 2050, in which the orientation of Diễn Châu construction becomes a town at the town level before 2030.

[5] The purpose of this project is to make Diễn Châu a new center of finance, economy, trade, culture and tourism of the whole province.

Diễn Châu's area is located on the most important road (đường cái quan) of Vietnam since the Middle Ages, so it possesses a treasure of extremely special and equally complicated customs and traditions.

The other feature of Diễn Châu is the richness of the units called as the trade village (làng nghề), which is similar to the Hanseatic League.

Some examples : Bronze casting, iron forging, lime, silkworm raising, weaving, sedge carpet, molasses, rice noodles...

Diễn Châu is adjacent to the rural districts Yên Thành (West), Nghi Lộc (South) and Quỳnh Lưu (North).