Coc Ly Market

It is the colorful market in a mountainous area where the Flower H'mong mainly gathers to exchange their homemade products. This Tuesday market is about 35km from Bac Ha. You can get here via a fairly good road, or by road and river; hotels in Sapa and Bac Ha can organise trips. Coc Ly is a small village on the Chay river inhabited by the Flower H'mong Minority people

It is the colorful market in a mountainous area where the Flower H'mong mainly gathers to exchange their homemade products. This Tuesday market is about 35km from Bac Ha. You can get here via a fairly good road, or by road and river; hotels in Sapa and Bac Ha can organise trips. Coc Ly is a small village on the Chay river inhabited by the Flower H'mong Minority people. The Flower H'mong traditionally wear a distinctive and bright colored costume. They are a gentle, softly spoken people who live in the steep mountainous country close to the Chinese border. Because Coc Ly is more remote than Sapa, the dress and way of life is more traditional than in the large centers. The market deals in fruit, vegetable, pork and chickens, in addition to colourful fabrics and items of traditional dress. There is a buffalo sale in progress and many of these placid animals are tethered close to the market. Buffalo are still widely used in the growing process, especially in the mountainous regions. Horse are an important form of transport in the North West and a quite a few, sturdy ponies were tied to tree around the market. The horse carry a light timber frame on their back to carry produce to and from the market. There’s no dancing or singing, but Coc Ly Market in Laocai Province always turns colorful and festive on Tuesdays, when ethnic people gather there to buy and sell goods, dine and drink, or just wander to enjoy the ambience of the montagnard market. Many ethnic traders from Bac Ha and other parts of Lao Cai Province dress up in colorful costumes and bring horses, chickens, buffaloes, vegetables or whatever they can sell to the festive market in the wee hours, and will not return home until 1pm. Certainly, what catches the eyes of visitors most are the different colors of the costumes worn by ethnic people and the handicrafts they sell at the market, about 50 kilometers from Laocai City in the northern province. You can see young and old Hmong women, wearing skirts and hats with different types of embroidered flowers, crowding the market during the opening hours of Coc Ly. Scarves, clothes, decorations and other items made of tho cam (ethnic fabric) on sale also add color to the bazaar by the Chay River. The colorful items are put on sale not just for locals but also tourists, particularly foreigners. However, you should remember to bargain when you want to buy your favorites, and the items at the booths located at the start of the path you walk on always have higher prices. Keep walking toward the end of the traditionally ethnic market until you find a real bargain. A good idea is to stroll every corner of the once-a-week bazaar as you listen to unexpected conversations, see nice surprises and learn how ethnic people sell and buy farm produce, life’s necessities and other things. After visiting the market, which is the most fresh and unspoiled market of the region, offering a wide range of different colorful ethnic minorities such as Flower C'mon, Black Dao, Tay , Fula, Lachi, Sandui and Nung....there will be an exciting boat cruise winding you through a breathtaking, out of this-world landscape where the mountain grow from water presenting their most hidden mysteries, including caves and tiny minority ...A picnic lunch box can be prepared for your most convenience..

Source:www.traveltosapa.com

Lung Khau Nhin Market - Thursday

Taking place every Thursday, Lung Khau Nhin Market is a small market hiding itself amongst the mountains and forests of the far north Vietnam about 10 km from the border with China. Although not being so big or famous among visitors as Coc Ly and Can Cau, Lung Khau Nhin market, be side a normal shopping place, play an important role to spiritual life of local ethnic peoples Flower H’mong, Black Zao, Zay, and especially to those who come from very small ethnic groups such as Pa Zi, Tou Zi, Tou Lao who live in small and isolated villages around this corner of the country, come for meeting, socializing... From Lao Cai: 65Km and takes nearly 2 hours by road; From Sapa: 102km and takes about 3 hours by road

Source:www.traveltosapa.com

Architectural heritage

In the Lao Cai province, the buildings of specific architecture fall into two main categories: - The traditional buildings of the local ethnic groups - French buildings dating back to the colonial era The Tay stilt houses: Made of strong durable wood (such as “iron wood” called Lime), these houses are built on stilts, with the traditional palm roof to keep the summer heat away. They are often surrounded with balconies and open on all four sides to let the breeze in. Three thousand palms are necessary to cover an average-size house (8m x 12m). One single family does not own enough palm-trees to make a roof, so the whole village helps: relatives and neighbors bring their palms and their know-how, in return for which the family will provide food and alcohol for everyone until the roof is completed. The most beautiful stilt houses are found in the districts of Bao Yen, Bao Thang and Van Ban.   The Nung and Tu Si houses with traditional baked clay roof tiles These wood-frame houses have become very rare. The roof tiles are made of clay, baked at high temperature in wood kilns buried in the ground. After 5 days of baking, the still hot tiles are sprinkled with water. Those that do not break will protect the houses for a century at least. This technique, known as “ rakou” tends to disappear because the hundreds of kilos of wood necessary to bake the tiles are hard to find. King Hoang A Tuong’s palace in Bac Ha is covered in traditional clay tiles. Some can still be seen in the north of the Muong Khuong, Si Ma Cai and Bac Ha districts. The rotproof wood Hmong houses To build the walls and roof of their houses, the H’mong and the Dao use one of the most popular woods in the area, peumou (Fokienia Hodginsii) also called “coffin wood” because the H’mong and the Chinese like to bury their dead in it. Insects do not attack peumou and it does not deteriorate when in contact with water. Roofs made of peumou shingle will last up to 70 years. Some can be seen in Cat Cat, Lao Chai and Tavan. Some vestiges of colonial architecture Many French architects living in Indo-China borrowed building techniques and decoration patterns from Vietnamese and Chinese architecture. The few Sapa buildings that have survived the wars show how these influences have mingled, with the palace of Hoang A Tuong in Bac Ha as best example. Some of Sa Pa colonial-era villas and the houses along the main road in Muong Khuong testify to this cultural syncretism.

Source:  www.traveltosapa.com

Hoang Lien National Park

Hoang Lien National Park Hoang Lien National Park, just outside Sapa town, is unique for experiencing nature at close hand. The Park encompasses approximately 30 km2 of scenic mountainous landscape, including Vietnam s highest peak, Fansipan (3143m). The Park contains temperate and sub-temperate forests which cover the Hoang Lien mountain range. The forest and surrounding vegetation provides habitats for a variety of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects. Many of these are found only in north-west Vietnam and are of great biological significance. Hoang Lien National Park Hoang Lien National Park is located in the Hoang Lien mountain range belonging to Sapa and Than Uyen districts, Lao Cai Province and includes Vietnam s highest peak, Mount Fansipan (3,143 m). The park supports a wide variety of habitat types: elevations below 1,800m support lower montage evergreen forest; elevations between 1,800 and 2,500m support upper montage evergreen forest, elevations between 2,500 and 2,800m support sub-alpine forest, while the vegetation above 2,800m is dominated by stands of dwarf bamboo with scattered, stunted trees. Below 1,000m, the forest has been almost entirely cleared and replaced with anthropogenic habitats, including secondary grassland, scrub and cultivation. Secondary habitats are also found at higher elevations. The park supports a high diversity of animal groups. 347 bird species have been recorded in and around the nature reserve, including 49 species that are restricted in Viet Nam to north-west Tonkin. The park also supports approximately one third of Viet Nam s known amphibian species, the highest recorded amphibian species richness of any protected area in Viet Nam. Several amphibian species are currently known only from the site, and around 10% of the national park s amphibian species are globally threatened. Invertebrate diversity is also very high, and many species of invertebrate discovered at the site are known from nowhere else in the world

Source: www.traveltosapa.com

Sapa Town

General info about Sapa Town: Sapa is located in Lao Cai province (formerly Hoang Lien Son province) in north-west Vietnam. Sapa means "town of sand" (Sa (sand), Pa (town) in Chinese characters).  The town is situated at 1500 meters above sea level. Northern Vietnam was previously known as Tonkin, and the Sapa area was named “Tonkinese Alps” by French. The area was discovered by Europeans when a Jesuit missionary visited SaPain 1918. French colonists were attracted by the climate and scenery, and in 1932 began developing the town as a health resort. After moving minorities from the town, they built a church , some hotels, an aerodrome by Tram Ton Pass, tennis courts, the hydro-electric power station in Cat Cat village and over 200 villas in town and the surrounding area, which have since been abandoned or destroyed. They also established road links with Lao Cai and Lai Chau. The road was fixed in 1969 by the Chinese, many of whom were killed during the construction. The Silver Waterfall used to be host to a cemetery built in their honor. Since 1945, Sapa has been governed by the Vietnamese political system. In early 1979, there was an armed assault on Sapa which destroyed most of the buildings.  Due to Vietnamese resistance this conflict lasted less than two weeks.  Only a few of the original French buildings remain intact.  Major population centers such as Lao Cai were razed to the ground. The ruins of the French villas are prominent on the route from Sapa to Sin Chai village.  Sapa is the natural starting point for a unique experience in the mountainous area, which includes the Hoang Lien Son mountain range, Vietnam s highest peak of Fan Si Pan (3143m) and 5 different hill-tribes, each one colourful, distinct, and with its own language and cultural values. Some of the villages, especially the more remote ones, are still largely untouched by modern ways of life, and staying overnight privately offers an unusual insight into an otherwise unknown aspect of life in Vietnam. The climate: The mean annual temperature in Sapa is 15.4C (59.7F) with a maximum of 29.4C (84.9F) in July and a maximum of -3.2C (26.2F) in December. The coolest months are December to February and snow falls most years for 1-3 days.  In December 1922, 12 cm s of snow fell in Sapa town so if visiting the area at this time of the year be prepared for cold weather! Frosts are frequent during the winter and mist shrouds the Fan Si Pan ridge and Sapa town. Foggy days are common, with an average of 137 per year.   The mean annual rainfall is 2763mm, with a high of 4723mm and a low of 2964 mm . The rainy season is between May and September.  Humidity ranges from 75-91% with an average of 87%.

Source: www.traveltosapa.com

Sapa Landscape

Sapa also known as “Tonkinese Alps”, once was the French Hill Station for its amazing scenery and special climate. Nowadays,  Sapa is a major tourist destination of North Vietnam, not only for its location as a natural starting point for the unique experiences in the mountainous area, on Hoang Lien Son mountain range, but also for its own stunning landscapes. To be favoured by generous nature, Sapa has almost every attraction that the mountainous destination would have. From  Sapa Town, which is 1,600 m asl, one will have a bird eye over the North Vietnam’s deepest and longest Muong Hoa valley set by the towering peaks, including Fansipan, of Hoang Lien Range. There the villages, surrounded by forests and waterfalls, are scattered around and spread to heaven s rim. The mountain, carved to be rice terraced for producing rice and maize, has been the back ground for the enormous painting of the amazing landcape. For decades, the valley has been home for 5 different hill-tribes ( Hmong, Red Dao, Tay, Giay and Xa Pho), each one colorful, distinct, and with its own language and cultural values. Some of the villages, especially the more remote ones, are still largely untouched by modern ways of life

Source: www.traveltosapa.com

Lao Cai History

In the 19th century, the Lao Cai area served as fighting ground for various armed groups, among which the famous Black Pavilions and White Pavilions. These gangs of plunderers had taken refuge in the mountains of Vietnam after the Taiping rebellion in China.

A little history In the 19th century, the Lao Cai area served as fighting ground for various armed groups, among which the famous Black Pavilions and White Pavilions. These gangs of plunderers had taken refuge in the mountains of Vietnam after the Taiping rebellion in China. Their main purpose was to control the shipping trade on the Red River. Sea salt from Vietnam, opium from the Yunnan province, new rice, fabrics, manufactured goods were to be their primary objectives. Between 1850 and 1886, the town of Lao Cai was taken, destroyed and fortified several times by different groups. On March 30th, 1886, Colonel de Maussion and his troops arrived in Lao Cai. Their objective was to pacify the area in order to create a stable border with China and to open a trade route to China via the Yunnan province. The French wanted to be the first to reach Yunnan before the British managed to open a trade route starting from Burma. At the time, the French thought that Burma would be a new eldorado, especially because of its luxury silks and ore reserves. As of the 1910s, Lao Cai made it possible to control the opium trade, from which the colony derived the best part of its resources. For this purpose, the Foreign Legion set up military posts in Bat Xat, Muong Khuong and Bac Hà and militias were created in the villages. Until 1945, then again from 1947 to 1950, the town was administered by a French resident. Traditionally, the shipping trade on the Red River has always been done by sampans capable of carrying up to 12 to 15 tons of goods, which sailed from Hanoi to Lao Cai in 35 days. In 1898, China granted the French government the right to build the Yunnan railway. The first works started in 1901 and the railway track reached Lao Cai in April 1906. The overall cost of the project was 78 million gold francs for 384 kilometres. The railway line cost the lives of 12.000 Chinese and Vietnamese workers and 80 Europeans. In 1913, the road from Lao Cai to Cha Pa was but a mule track, only practicable on foot or on horseback. Today’s paved road was not marked out until 1924. As of 1925, the connection was established between the road and railway networks. At 9:00 p.m., the traveller could board the train in Hanoi and got off nine hours later in Lao Cai, after which a two hours’ drive took him to Cha Pa. The trip back was just as easy: leaving Cha Pa at 5 :00 p.m. one was back in Lao Cai at 7 :00 p.m., in time for a meal at the Hôtel de la Gare before boarding the night train at 8:30 p.m.

Source: www.traveltosapa.com