Vietnam Travel Guide » Ha Giang

Thang Co

Admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 09:25:48 +0000

“Thang Co” is traditional and popular dish of Mong people in many mountainous areas of Ha Giang. It is made from different parts of beefs and goats including heads, legs, internal organs, and all meat together cooked with herbal and eating with “Men Men”, Corn cakes. Thang co will delicious more than with a bowl of corn wine.

Thang Co

Dong Van Market

Admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 09:14:26 +0000

The Dong Van market fair in the northern most province of Ha Giang is held every Sunday.
On sale are local products made by Mong, Han, Dao, Giay and Tay ethnic people.
To reach the market on time they have to leave their homes very early in the morning or even one day earlier.

Go to the Market

Dong Van Market

with Mum

Have breakfast

Thang Co - a traditional food

The ancient market of Dong Van

The old stone field of Nam Dan

Admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 08:57:46 +0000

The old stone field of Nam Dan was found in 2004 by scientists from the Institute of Archeology and the Ha Giang Museum. This thousand year-old stone field inside the valley of Nam Dan has not been known widely by the visitors, but the beauty of the runic symbols on the rocks is very fascinating.

This stone field is located between Mount Tay Dan and Nam Dan hill, adjacent to Nam Khoong stream.

The old stone field of Nam Dan

About the stone field

The rocks here are various in types and design. They bear marks of the traditional beauty of the old art, as well as weather-beaten traces after a thousand years. Each stone represents a legend of ethnic groups about religion and beliefs, and their worship to the God and Ancestors. There are about 80 engravings with 80 holes (5-6 cm in diameter, 1-2cm in depth) on mostly the western side of the stones.

According to scientists, the Nam Dan Stone Field was established approximately 2000 years ago. It could be a group of stone graves of the community’s leaders or a place to worship Gods, ancestors and other remarkable characters of the communities. It can be said that this place has a lot of value in terms of culture, history, religion as well as science. This place has the potential to become a widely known tourism destination in the future due to the fact that in the recent years, it has become a stop on the exploring route of many tourism agencies in this area.

The house of Vuong Family

Admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 08:52:32 +0000

The house of Vuong Family, the king of Miao ethnic, is located in Sa Phin, Dong Van, and Ha Giang. This mansion is impressive not because of its gigantic size, but its magnificence and unique design. As it was created by the Chinese stone artists from Yunnan (China) and the skillful Mong builders, the place’s design is influenced by the traditional architecture of the Qing dynasty in China in the late 1890s, as well as some element from the local Mong culture. This destination is a must-see that you should not skip on your tour in Ha Giang.

The house of Vuong Family

Located on a mountain with a tortoise’s back shape, this house was expected to bring wealth and prosperity to the owner because the turtle is one of the four sacred animals in the traditional Vietnamese legend (the four being the Dragon, Unicorn, Turtle and Phoenix). It was arranged with 4 horizontal and 6 vertical blocks divided into 2 floors and 64 rooms. The house was decorated carefully with images of sacred and respected animal such as lion, dragon, bat and phoenix to show the prosperity and wealth of the family. Around the mansion, there is a sturdy rocks wall which is 50cm in width, with a number of guarding towers and loopholes. This wall not only protects the family against the assault of enemies from the outside, but also forms a feeling of massiveness to the inner house. Outside of the mansion is the rock road that leads to the main entrance, and the tomb of the family.

Lung Cu – Ha Giang

Admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:16:36 +0000

Lung Cu Peak is located in Dong Van District, 200km from the center of Ha Giang Borough with a natural area of 3,460 ha. Visitors are attracted by magnificent mountains hiding in the cloud as well as the Flag Tower on top of Dragon Mountain (Long Son), terraces of the local resident and Lo Lo Lake. Also, the winter in this place is very cold so that visiting Lung Cu in that time can give tourists a chance to witness real white snow covering the forests and mountains here.

Lung Cu - Ha Giang

Of Culture and Nature
Lung Cu population consists of many ethnic groups with different and diverse features in culture, beliefs and practices. People here mostly grow rice on the unique terraces and milpas, and even Mong and Lo Lo communities here still practice the traditional textile methods. Traditional features in cultures of these ethnic groups are very diverse and interesting. Many travelers are attracted here to explore these unique aspects of the community.

Many cultural features of ethnic groups here were influenced by the Vietnamese culture, like the silver drum of the Lo Lo which originated from the silver drum of Dong Son. Moreover, Lung Cu is famous by many special foods and drink such as corn alcohol, honey alcohol and “Thang Co” (a kind of soup that Is cooked with almost every part of an animal such as pork, beef, horse…)

Ha Giang Travel

Admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 10:04:14 +0000

Because Ha Giang Province’s infrastructure is still on its way of improvement, ones can only reach this destination by car or motorbikes along the High Way No. 2 to the north of Hanoi, through 3 provinces: Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho and Tuyen Quang. It’s excellent if one has a private car or if not, you can go to some coach station in Hanoi like Giap Bat, Gia Lam, My Dinh, Luong Yen or Ha Dong to get a coach with relatively low fair, varies from 100,000 VND (about $5) per one way ticket.

Dong Van in photography

Among the highest latitudes of Vietnam, Ha Giang Province is undoubtedly a great destination for the sightseeing of grandiose mountainous landscapes. Ha Giang’s resident consists mainly of minor ethnic groups who make up its own culture.

Location and history
Ha Giang is a mountainous province in the North of Vietnam in which the Vietnam-China border extends more than 274km long. The province is also the source of Lo River flowing into Vietnam, contiguous to China to the north with international border gate Thanh Thuy. Southern of Ha Giang is Tuyen Quang; eastern is Cao Bang and Lao Cai to the West. Ha Giang is about 320km to the north of Hanoi, following Highway no. 2.

Ha Giang is quite a new city with only 120 years of history. Going through a lot of difficulties in term of unfavorable location and low level of infrastructure, Ha Giang is transforming from an economically underdeveloped province into a tourism locale that attracts a lot of visitors in the last few years.

Like any other Northern highlands of Vietnam, the climate here is cool in the summer and extremely cold in the winter which ones may see snow. The temperature of Ha Giang ranges from 5 – 28 Celcius degree, which is pretty ideal for tourism.

Ha Giang’s tourist attractions

Like Sapa, the most renowned attraction of Ha Giang are the many grandiose mountains. Although mountains here are not as high as Sapa’s mountains and seem not to be steep enough to challenge adventurous climbers, they stand out for extensive area of limestone with unique formation of peaky rocks.

The most famous rocky area of Ha Giang is Dong Van Rock Plateau, which is recognized by UNESCO as one of 77 geological parks in the world. Lung Cu hamlet lying inside Dong Van Rock Plateau is another indispensible destination as it marks the very northern tip of Vietnam by Lung Cu Flag Tower on Dragon Mountain.

Lung Cu flag tower

Not only that, Ha Giang is a venue of fanciful natural caves such as Phuong Thien Cave, Chui Cave, Fairy Cave and Swallow Cave. Although all the caves offer wonderful scenery with fantastic shapes of stalactites, each one has its own story and traits. For example, legend says that fairies used to bath in Fairy Stream inside Fairy Cave which is the source of its name.

Ha Giang is also well-known for its magnificent forests in which there are more than 1,000 species of good woods, drug trees as well rare animals like tigers, peacock or pangolin.

Dong Van Market

Ha Giang’s unique culture
This mountainous province’s residents consist mainly of ethnic minorities with a major of Hmong, Tày, Yao and Nùng ethnic groups. Thanks to this ethnical diversity, nowhere can one see more fusing traditions than Ha Giang. Each of the ethnic group has its unique custom in term of wedding, worship, festivals or funeral. To illustrate, a Hmong groom can only get married only if he can rob his wife but no one know about his action to be successful pass the trial.

In Ha Giang, for tourist to see the most unique custom of the ethnic minorities, it is recommended to take a trekking tour or travel by motorbikes because there are many ethnic hamlets living separately from the mainstream society. Coming to these tribes, ones may see charms on their doors to expel demons and evil spirits. The locals are also very friendly who welcome strangers like honored guests and may treat you their special dish: Thang Co (horse meat hot-pot).

A unique spot only be seen in Ha Giang is “Khau Vai Love Market”. The market-day is held monthly only on the 26th and 27th of a Lunar Year. In there, both single and married people in different ethnic groups can come to find ones’ ideal life-partner and sharing their feeling and understanding to each other. Lunar New Year seem to be the best time to visit Ha Giang when ones can see a wide variety of traditional customs of ethnic minorities here, such as celebrating success, rain ritual, sons ritual, crossbow shooting competition, pan-pie performance or “Còn” Throwing competition.

How to get there?
Because Ha Giang’s infrastructure is still on its way of improvement, ones can only reach this destination by car or motorbikes along the High Way No. 2 to the north of Hanoi, through 3 provinces: Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho and Tuyen Quang. It’s excellent if one has a private car or if not, you can go to some coach station in Hanoi like Giap Bat, Gia Lam, My Dinh, Luong Yen or Ha Dong to get a coach with relatively low fair, varies from 100,000 VND (about $5) per one way ticket.