If you are still searching for a destination for autumn travel, Mu Cang Chai (Yen Bai province) might be your ideal destination.

Overview

Located 300 kilometers from Hanoi, in the Northwestern mountainous region of Vietnam, Mu Cang Chai is one of the most amazing landscapes of rice-terraced fields in Vietnam, an fabulous destination for holiday makers, scientists and photographers.

Mu Cang Chai district, 300 km northwest of Hanoi, is at its most beautiful in September and October when the rice ripens. From Trong Tong hamlet, visitors get a panoramic view of terraced rice fields stretching throughout Mu Cang Chai district to the horizon. During the early days of the year, local farmers plant their rice, not an easy job because the hillside and the mountain sides steep. It’s a meter climb from the one narrow field to the next. It’s difficult to ensure enough water for all the fields. Giang A Trinh is a Mong farmer in La Pan Tan commune: “The techniques for farming terraced rice fields have been handed down through generations. I learned them from my grandparents and parents. It’s difficult to plough the hard soil.”

Located about 1000 meters above sea level, Mu Cang Chai has a special topography with steep hills and deep valleys where the local residences such as Mucangchai minority groups : Hmong, Thai, Dao have created the master-piece, Terraced Fields. They has cultivated about 500 hectares of rice terraces for centuries in La Pan Tan, Che Cu Nha and De Xu Phinh communes.

In 2007, the fields was recognized as national heritage sites for its amazing landscape. The fields look stunning during the rice season.

Best time to visit Mu Cang Chai

The best time to visit Mu Cang Chai is from Mid-September to Mid-October during the season when rice fields are turning yellow and ready for harvest. This can be different each year (depending on weather), so be sure to check out first. BUT from May to Sep is also no less impressive when the rice fields are green.

Mu Cang Chai has 2 pretty nice seasons which you can arrange to come; the other seasons to Mu Cang Chai have nothing special.

Around mid-September to mid-October is the season of grain, all of rice terraces throughout Mu Cang Chai will be covered by bright yellow, the weather is nice and convenient to visit.

Around May-June is the pouring season, when summer rains began pouring down the mountain, the water is led from the mountains into terraces. Water flooded into the fields to make arid become softer and swells to grow rice. This is also the time people go to the field to crops and prepare for a new season. Therefore in the terraced in Northern Vietnam Mountains can only plant rice one time per year. This terraced water flashed in the sunset creates a beauty that many tourists to be surprised.

Sights of interest

Khau Pha Pass

Khau Pha Pass (source: Asia Tour)

As one of the lines winding and steep gorge ranks among the best Vietnam. Khau Pha Pass is a high mountain pass at an elevation of 1.500m (4,900ft) above the sea level, located in Mù Căng Chải District, Yên Bái Province, Vietnam. It’s one of the longest mountain passes of the country.Khau Pha Pass starting point is cut Highway 32 to Highway 279 consecutive seamlessly with grandchildren pass it forward and pass on the road behind Kim Walls 32.

The road to the summit is asphalted. It’s called National Highway 32.

From the city of Yen Bai, vice along Highway 32 about 5 hours, through communal Tu Le, Khau Pha pass Mu Cang Chai district out between a plateaus surrounded by mountains identical messages. The winding stretches of road passes between the old forests are bold and pristine slopes terraced fields of H’Mong, Thai.

Caution:

With just a low concrete barrier between you and the steep mountain drop, it's best not to look down. It’s said to be one of the most dangerous roads in the country, making many people and especially foreigners eager to explore it.

The road is 30km long, pretty steep. It’s dangerous due the thick fog, snow in winters, sharp bends, no barrier or warning signs, lack of regular maintenance, risk of landslides.

Lim Mong Village

If you are going to visit Mu Cang Chai, make sure you don’t miss the mesmerizing landscapes of Lim Mong Village – the little yet lovely, peaceful, and beautiful hideaway.

Lim Mong Village brings some unique impressions to the guests. It is not about luxury, but the destination of peace and warmth, in which you stay closest to Nature and experience the plain lifestyle of the hill tribes.

Photo: Asia Tour

Located right at the foot of Khau Pa Hill, the little lovely Lim Mong Village is the ideal shelter for everybody to steer clear of bustle and hustle. There you are free from stress and anxiety. The only things left are sightseeing the picturesque scenery and breathing the fresh air of the new grain.

In the morning, the terraced rice fields in Lim Mong reflect the pictures of wealth, with spacious, lush, and abundant grains of rice. In the afternoon, the whole scenery becomes romantic and incredible, with the lines of white and pink clouds moving towards the skyline. In some moments, you can even watch flocks of birds flying over the lush rice fields, the winds playing with the yellow grains of rice, and the ethnic children riding water buffaloes and calling each other to return home. Also, it’s a warm scene to see the Hmong women carrying their babies on the backs. This is absolutely a haven with the peaceful and simple life, in which you don’t need to worry about how the world outside is going.

This hill-tribe village is best known for the magical terraced rice fields as well as the unique culture that a few places can compare. Arriving at this beautiful site, you can spread the eyes toward the Hmong’s houses nestled along the picturesque waterfalls and spacious rice fields. Lim Mong delivers the perse colorful pictures of the hill life.

If you stand at Khau Pa Hill, take the opportunities to contemplate the thread-like roads leading toward the sky and spotlighted with the layers of colorful rice fields. Sometimes, it makes you feel like you are getting lost in the green and yellow realm. Together with natural beauty, such fantastic masterpieces of the terraced rice fields are made by humankind efforts. The hill tribes have been working hard enough to nurture the beauty of the fields. The results of the yellow fields are the delicious sticky rice, which is a must to eat in Lim Mong.

La Pan Tan

In addition to magnificent rice terrace, Lim Pa Tan will surely amaze visitors by the locality's distinctive blossoms: Tớ Dày. By the end of the year, along the roads into the winding, deserted. It is easy to be speechless when you catch the sight of a world that is full of flowers, layers in each other on the vast forest.

Photo: Asia Tour

The sweet brink pink color reminds people of a new kind of energy signaling a vibrant spring full of life.

TớDày Flower in La Pan Tan village (source: Dau Tu Chung Khoan)

Tu Le Village

Tu Le is one village of Van Chan district Yen Bai province, about 265 km north of Ha Noi, in the North West Vietnam region. The Tu Le village is home to the HMong and Thai community. For the place being about 960 meters above sea level, the steep hills make it almost impossible to grow rice fields like those in the delta.

Photo: Asia Tour

Thus local residences grow their own rice on the terraced fields, for the purpose of preventing water from flowing downhill. These terraced fields lying among rugged green mountain valleys, under clear blue sky or a mysterious and script fog, bring to eyes an imposing scenery.

Thus local residences grow their own rice on the terraced fields, for the purpose of preventing water from flowing downhill. These terraced fields lying among rugged green mountain valleys, under clear blue sky or a mysterious and script fog, bring to eyes an imposing scenery./.

( VNF )