Lào Cai (Province)

Lào Cai (Province)
Provincial capital:	Lào Cai
Region:	Bắc Bộ
Region:	Northwest
Surface:	6,383.9 km²
Residents:	684,300 (2016)
Population density :	107 inhabitants / km²
Chairman d. People's Council:	Nguyễn Hữu Vạn
Chairman d. People's Committees:	Sùng Chúng
License plate :	24
map

The Vietnamese province of Lào Cai is located in Vùng Tây Bắc , the northwest region of Vietnam in the northern part of the country Bắc Bộ . The name of the province ( vietn . : Tỉnh ) Lào Cai , pronunciation ^{? / i} , Chinese 老街 省 , means something like "area of ​​the old streets". The capital and namesake of the province is the provincial town ( thành phố trực thuộc tỉnh ) Lào Cai .  

Lào Cai is shaped in terms of landscape and history by the Hoàng Liên Sơn mountain range, the upper reaches of the Red River and the border with China . For centuries, the geographical conditions provided a path of incursion for Chinese campaigns and occupations, most recently in the so-called "war of punishment " (also: educational campaign ) in China in 1979. The situation in Lao Cai has always been politically and militarily significant for the country of Vietnam. The economic weight outside of the timber industry was rather low, as the province, due to its geography, was not very suitable for growing rice.

In the meantime, trade with China has also increased significantly here, but above all tourism has been a success story since the 1980s. In addition to the grandiose landscape, the province is attractive due to the cultural diversity of the ethnic minorities living in the region, who have been able to preserve their customs largely isolated from the Vietnamese state culture, and whose peculiarity is now also state promoted.

Origin of name

The term Lào Kay was used by the French colonial administration and pronounced Lào Cai by the Vietnamese . In the spelling Lào Cai, the term has been the official name of the city since November 1950.

One of the theories for the origin of this name is as follows: in the area of ​​today's district Cốc Lếu there was an old market town, from which a trading town emerged, which was called Lão Nhai (老街, today Phố Cũ , old town). "Lão" or "Lạo" is the name of an ethnic group, and Lão Nhai is seen to mean "City of the Lão / Lạo". Lao Kaù was the name of a gunboat with which the adventurer and trader Jean Dupuis undertook a naval expedition on the Red River to the Chinese province of Yunnan in January 1873 . According to the historian Đào Duy Anh , this name was derived from Lão Nhai. The French are said to have derived the spelling Lào Kay from Lao Kaù on their documents and maps.

Location and climate

Border crossing to China, view from Lào Cai to Hékǒu

The province is located 300 km northwest of the capital Ha Noi on both sides of the valley through which the Red River ( Vietnamese Sông Hồng or Hồng Hà ) flows southeast. The following Vietnamese provinces border on Lào Cai: Lai Châu in the west, Yên Bái and Sơn La in the south and Hà Giang in the east . The Chinese districts of Honghe , Pu'er and Xishuangbanna of Yunnan Province join to the north.

The provincial capital Lào Cai is located directly on the border with Honghe opposite the Chinese city Hékǒu Yáozú ( Chinese  河口 镇 , Vietnamese: Hà Khẩu) at the confluence of the Nậm Thi or Nam Ti ( Chinese  南 溪河, Nanxi He ) in the Red River . The Vietnamese also call the barely navigable section of the Red River from the border to Việt Trì Sông Thao. The second largest river in the Sông Chẩy province flows northeast parallel to the Red River. 107 rivers and streams with a length of ten km or more flow through the province, which power a large number of small and medium-sized hydropower plants.

The climate is diverse. In the low areas there is a tropical climate with average temperatures of 22 to 24 ° C. In the over 700 m high areas, the climate is semi-tropical and mild with an average temperature of 18 to 28 ° C. Especially in Sa Pa , the temperature can drop below freezing and it can snow. The climate there seems almost Central European.

The region is repeatedly hit by severe tropical storms ( typhoons ), floods and landslides. In August 2008, the typhoon "Kammuri" cut off numerous villages from the surrounding area, destroyed buildings and destroyed the harvest.

At the top of the Fansipan

The Hoàng Liên Sơn Mountains

Black Flag Soldier 1885

Logo of the Province of Lào Cai

Landscapes

The topography of the province was shaped 50–60 million years ago.

The Hoàng Liên Sơn mountain range, also known as the “Roof of Indochina” or the Vietnamese Yunnan Mountains, runs in a north-westerly direction. A nature reserve has been established here since 1986 (confirmed by the “World Conservation Monitoring Center” of UNEP in 2003 ) and the Hoàng Liên National Park since 2002 . In the vicinity of Phan-xi-păng (also: Fan Si Pan), at 3,143 m the highest mountain in Vietnam, is the place Sa Pa at 1,600 m altitude . The French built a mountain station there in 1880 and a military sanatorium in 1913. The village was expanded until 1922 and used as a resort.

The stone field in the Muồng Hoa valley near Sa Pa with almost 200 stone blocks in different shapes ( proposed for UNESCO World Heritage Site ), as well as the Thác Bạc waterfall (silver waterfall) also located near Sa Pa, are also scenic . The Hàm Rồng mountain resort, the Trạm Tôn pass (“Heavenly Gate”), the Mường Vi cave and the Cốc San stream with its waterfall are also worth a visit. In the cave near the village of Tả Phìn there are numerous stone blocks in various shapes.

In addition to the mountains, the landscape is dominated by large forests, 82% of which are still natural forests. The information on the total forest area fluctuates between 278,907 hectares, i.e. over 43% of the provincial area, and 307,573 hectares, 48% of the provincial area. There are over 2000 registered plant species, 9 of which, such as the deciduous tree species Altingia poilanei , can only be found in the area around Sa Pa. Of the currently 442 registered species of the diverse fauna, 60 only exist in the province of Lào Cai.

history

As a result of the expulsion of the Việt / Kinh people from the steppes of Central Asia to the south, the Lào Cai region became part of the forerunners of today's state of Vietnam. In 1463 Lào Cai became the capital of the northernmost province of Hưng Hóa of the Đại Việt empire under Emperor Lê Thánh Tông .

In 1868 the black flag partisans (pavilions noirs), remnants of the rebel army expelled from South China after the defeat of the Taiping uprising in 1864 , took Lào Cai under Lưu Vĩnh Phúc ( Chinese  劉永福 , Pinyin Liú Yǒngfú ) after almost a year of siege. They terrorized the population, but when the French pushed north along the Red River and threatened their positions, the "black flags" passed over to the Vietnamese and, organized as "Hakki" and "Whangki", belonged to the Vietnamese Cần Vương movement among the most resolute opponents of the French in the occupation of Vietnam.

For the colonial power France, the region of the northern Tonkin was interesting because of its strategically important location, but also for trade with China. From 1873 to 1886 France fought with China and the "black flags" for the region, since 1881 in a permanent conflict. In 1883 Tonkin became a French protectorate and in 1887 part of the Indochinese Union. It was not until 1889 that the French took Lào Cai. The "black flags" acted as bands of robbers in the mountains until the end of the 19th century. On July 12, 1907, the province of Lào Kay was officially founded by the Governor General of Indochina. The current spelling of the name became official in 1950 in the young Democratic Republic of Vietnam .

The province repeatedly suffered from armed border disputes with the People's Republic of China . After the invasion of Cambodia by Vietnamese troops on December 25, 1978 and the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime in February 1979, Chinese troops crossed the border. After three weeks of fighting, in the course of which the city of Lào Cai was severely destroyed, both parties declared themselves victorious in this Sino-Vietnamese war, known as China's "war of education" . The border crossing and port on the Hékǒu side remained closed until 1993.

Demography and administrative structure

According to the population statistics from 2009, Lào Cai had 614,595 inhabitants, of which 129,123 (21%) lived in cities. 241,274 (39.3%) were younger than 18 years, 35,636 (5.8%) 60 years and older.

212,528 inhabitants (34.6%) were ethnic Vietnamese (also called Việt or Kinh ). In addition, 53 ethnic minority groups are officially recognized in Vietnam, of which more than 20 are represented in Lào Cai, mainly Hmong (23.8%), Tày (15.3%), Yao / Dao (14.4%), Giáy ( 4.7%) and Nung (4.2%). There are also, for example, smaller groups of the Phù Lá and Thái . The village of Lao Chải is the home of the Hà Nhì Den , the "Black Hani ", the smallest ethnic group in Vietnam. The Vietnamese lived for the most part in cities (where they made up the clear majority of the population), all other ethnic groups predominantly in the countryside.

See also : Peoples of Vietnam

The question of whether the province belongs to the north-western region of Vùng Tây Bắc is not handled with absolute clarity. Occasionally it is also assigned to the northeast region Vùng Đông Bắc or the Red River, which flows through the middle of the province, is viewed as the border between the regions. The ISO 3166-2 code for Lào Cai is VN-02 . The telephone area code is +84 (0) 20, the postcode is 19 and the license plate number is 24.

The province is divided into the capital (Thành phố) Lào Cai and the following eight counties or districts: Bắc Hà, Bảo Thắng, Bảo Yên, Bát Xát, Mường Khương, Sa Pa, Si Ma Cai and Văn Bàn. The districts are divided into 144 parishes. In the province there are 11 cities with the capital.

Surname	Outline type	Population (2003)	Area (km²)	Cities (huyện lỵ or thị trấn) - bold and municipalities (xã)
Lào Cai	Provincial town ( thành phố trực thuộc tỉnh )	94.192	221.5	12 districts (phường) : Lào Cai, Phố Mới, Duyên Hải, Cốc Lếu, Kim Tân, Pom Hán, Bắc Lệnh, Thống Nhất, Xuân Tăng, Bắc Cường, Nam Cường, Bình Minh. Five parishes : Vạn Hòa, Đồng Tuyển, Cam Đường, Tả Phời, Hợp Thành.
Bắc Hà	County ( huyện )	48,988	680	Bắc Hà , Bản Phố, Bản Liền, Bản Già, Bảo Nhai, Bản Cái, Cốc Ly, Cốc Lầu, Nậm Mòn, Nậm Khánh, Nậm Đét, Na Hối, Lầu Thí Ngài, Lùng Phìả, Lùả Củản, Lùả Cản, Lùả Cản Tả Van Chư, Tà Chải, Thải Giàng Phố, Hoàng Thu Phố, Nậm Lúc.
Bảo Thắng	County ( huyện )	107.174	674	Phố Lu , Phong Hải , Tằng Loỏng , Phú Nhuận, Phố Lu, Sơn Hà, Trì Quang, Xuân Quang, Phong Niên, Xuân Giao, Gia Phú, Sơn Hải, Thái Niên, Bản Cầm, Bản Phiệt.
Bảo Yen	County ( huyện )	73.924	821	Phố Ràng , Long Khánh, Long Phúc, Việt Tiến, Lương Sơn, Yên Sơn, Xuân Thượng, Minh Tân, Bảo Hà, Cam Con, Kim Sơn, Điện Quan, Thượng Hà, Tân Dng, Xuân Hòĩ, Vĩnhô , Tân Tiến.
Bát Xát	County ( huyện )	62,477	1050	Bát Xát , Cốc San, Tòng Sanh, Phìn Ngan, Quang Kim, Bản Qua, Mường Vị, Bản Vược, Bản Xèo, Pa Cheo, Nậm Pung, Trung Lènh Hồ, Mường Hum, Dền Thàng, Sáng Ma Sáo, Dền Sáng Cốc Mỳ, Y Tý, Ngải Thầu, A Lù, A Mú Sung, Nậm Chạc, Trịnh Tường.
Mường Khương	County ( huyện )	48,242	552	Mường Khương , Lào Ca , Cao Sơn, Bản Lầu, Nậm Chảy, Tung Chung Phố, Tả Gia Khâu, Pha Long, Dìn Chin, Tả Ngải Chồ, Thanh Bình, Bản Sen, Lùng Khấu Nhin, La Pan Tưn, Nấm Ln, Nấm Ln Tả Thàng, Lùng Vai.
Sa Pa	County ( thị xã )	42,095	677	Sa Pa , Hầu Thào, Bản Phùng, Tả Phìn, Nậm Sài, Thanh Phú, Sa Pả, Lao Chải, Trung Chải, San Sả Hồ, Thanh Kim, Bản Hồ, Sử Pán, Suối Thầu, Tả Van, Bản Khoang, Tả Giàng Phình, Nậm Cang.
Si Ma Cai	County ( huyện )	25,554	241	Si Ma Cai, Thào Chư Phìn, Bản Mế, Sán Chải, Lùng Sui, Mản Thẩn, Cán Hồ, Sín Chéng, Lử Thẩn, Quan Thần Sán, Cán Cấu, Nàn Sín, Nàn Sán.
Văn Bàn	County ( huyện )	73.183	557.5	Khánh Yên , Văn Sơn, Võ Lao, Tân An, Tân Thượng, Nậm Mả, Nậm Rạng, Nậm Tha, Liêm Phú, Chiềng Ken, Sơn Thủy, Khánh Yên Hạ, Khánh Yên Trung, Khánh Yàn Thượng, L Lng, Lng , Dần Thàng, Dương Qùy, Nậm Chày, Thẳm Dương, Minh Lương, Nậm Xây, Nậm Xé.

Infrastructure

The most important places in the province are Bát Xát, Lào Cai, Mường Khương and Sa Pa.

The narrow-gauge railway line of the Yunnan Railway runs from Hải Phòng and Hanoi via Lào Cai through the southwest Chinese province of Yunnan to Kunming, 440 km north, and was built by the French between 1901 and 1910. Since the tourist village of Sa Pa can be reached from Lào Cai in an hour's drive, the hotel "Victoria Sapa" attaches historic luxury wagons to the night train from Hanoi for its guests several times a week. When the occupancy rate is low, these coaches, known as Victoria Express, can also be used by non-hotel guests. The journey time is approx. 10 hours. Small buses run regularly between the town of Lào Cai and Sa Pa.

Rail passenger traffic between Lào Cai and Hekou has been suspended since 2003 for safety reasons. By 2015 ^[obsolete] the Chinese government wants to build a new standard gauge line from Kunming to Lào Cai, to which the Yen Vien-Lao Cai Railway Upgrading Project will connect on the Vietnamese side .

Lào Cai is located on the Vietnamese national road No. 70, which connects the province with the south-eastern centers, the capital Hanoi and the port city of Hải Phong . It is planned to expand the national road largely parallel to the Yunnan Railway to a toll highway to Hải Phòng ( Noi Bai - Lao Cai Expressway or Highway, after Hanoi Airport , Nội Bài). Later this highway will be continued from Hékǒu to Kunming.

The Chinese airport of Wenshan ( IATA : WNH, ICAO : ZPWS) is a good 100 km away. The closest Vietnamese civil airports are Nà Sản Airport in Sơn La (IATA: SQH, ICAO: VVNS), Điện Biên Phủ Airport (viet .: Sân bay Điện Biên Phủ, IATA: DIN, ICAO: VVDB), around 260 streets - Kilometers southwest, followed by Hanoi International Airport, 300 kilometers southeast. The start of construction for a separate domestic airport for regional aircraft, originally planned between 2010 and 2015 , has been postponed indefinitely. There is talk of a start after 2015 ^{[out of date]} .

The upper reaches of the Red River is hardly navigable due to numerous rapids and is therefore not suitable as a transport route.

On September 26, 2008, hospital equipment worth 1,900,000 euros for the provincial hospital No. 1 in Lao Cai was handed over to the German-Vietnamese development cooperation as part of the health care priority.

Craft and economy

Lao Cai, along with other provinces in the northern highlands such as Lai Châu , is one of the poorest regions in Vietnam. Traditional industries such as forestry, especially timber production and trading, and agriculture remain important, but efforts are increasingly being made to encourage foreign investment, for example in the industrial clusters in Tằng Loỏng - Bảo Thắng, Đông Phố Mới and Bắc Duyên Hải , which were merged into the Lao Cai Industrial Park in 2010 .

The extraction of mineral resources plays a major economic role: in the province, over 30 types of minerals are extracted in 150 mines and mines, such as apatite in the Công ty A-pa-tít mine with an estimated 2.5 billion t reserve, ore in Quý Xa with reserves of 124 million t, copper in the Sin Quyền mine with 53 million t and molybdenum in the Ô Quy Hồ mine with 15,400 t reserves. An example of local industry is the Carbide (carbide) plant.

In the neighboring town of Hékǒu, the Yunnan Hekou Border Economic Cooperation Zone (Hekou BECZ) has been established as a Chinese investment zone of the border trade region type since September 1992 , and the border crossing is one of the three where the crossing between China and Vietnam for Foreigners are possible (as of spring 2010). Cross-border trade and tourism are steadily growing sources of income. During the global economic crisis of 2008/2009 the GDP rose by 11%, for 2007 the GDP per capita is given at around 400 US $.

Panorama near Sa Pa

tourism

In the province, Sa Pa has the greatest attraction for tourist activities, but the attractiveness of Bắc Hà is also repeatedly emphasized. In the first quarter of 2010, the district had 87,000 visitors, a third of whom were foreigners.

Typical destinations for tourist programs in Lào Cai are the traditional markets of the ethnic minorities: the night market Chợ đêm in Sa Pa is well known, also there on Sunday mornings the Chợ tình market , which is a traditional opportunity for lovers to meet, and the one that takes place on Saturdays "Love market" of the H'Mong minority in Cán Cấu. Every Sunday the “Market of the Peoples” takes place in Bắc Hà and offers a very colorful picture, as the different minorities of the region come together. The market is also a popular tourist destination, but foreigners are nowhere near as aggressively encouraged to buy souvenirs as in Sa Pa. The market in Mường Hum is also popular.

Due to the large number of population groups, the province celebrates an average of two large, nationally known festivals per month, such as the Nhiang chằm đao festival (literally: spring festival) of the Yao , the Gàu Tào festival of the H'Mông , the Lồng tồng festival of the Tày or the Roóng Poọc festival of the Giáy.

Traditional handicraft villages of the ethnic minorities are also attractive destinations for tourist excursions. In the village of Tả Phìn, for example, the local minority does weaving with brocade fabric ( Thổ cẩm ). The villages of Tả Van, Bản Hồ and Cát Cát, with a waterfall in the center, are also popular excursion destinations.

Buildings worth seeing are the MĐều Temple ( Đền M ,u , Mother Temple) on the Nậm Thi River, built in the 18th century , the Thượng Temple ( Đền Thượng , Father's Temple), a large temple built in the 19th century, near the Mẫu Temple . In it the folk hero General Trần Hưng auso from the 13th century is venerated. Also the Cầu Mây (Cloud Bridge) and the Bảo Hà Temple ( Đền Bảo Hà ), built in the 17th century. In it ông Hoàng Bảy , the hero of the minorities, is venerated. The Hoàng Yến Chao Castle is a mixture of Eastern and Western architecture and was built between 1914 and 1921.

Trekking tours around Mount Fansipan, for example, are popular with active vacationers. Ecotourism is playing an increasing role. A well-known example of this is the “Topas Ecolodge” near Sa Pa, which was founded in the 1970s as a Vietnamese-Danish joint venture and originally served as a hostel for adventure tourists in the Hoàng Liên Mountains.

gallery

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  Rice terraces at Sa Pa

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  Dao woman

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  Mountain road near Sa Pa

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  Cốc Lếu Bridge in Lào Cai

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  Thác Bạc waterfall

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  Black H'Mông 1999

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  Waterfall in Cát Cát

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  Palace in Bắc Hà

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  Village pub near Sa Pa

See also

Peoples of Vietnam , Red River , Yunnan Railway , Sino-Vietnamese War , Tourism in Vietnam

Web links

Commons : Lào Cai (Province)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• laocai.gov.vn : Administration website, vietn.
• sapa-vietnam.com : Tourism website of “Explorers Tours Vietnam. Co. Ltd “, eng.
• taphin-sapa.info : Website of the “Community Based Tourism Development Project”, eng.
• hoanglienson.org.vn : Project on species protection in the Hoàng Liên Sơn mountains in cooperation with the population, eng.
• GFZ Potsdam : seismic events in the region

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Provinces
2. ↑ ^{a b} Lịch sử Lào Cai / History of Lao Cai ( Vietnam ) Administration of Lào Cai. Retrieved on December 1, 2010.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
3. ↑ CARE : Reconstruction of agriculture after tropical storm "Kammuri"
4. ↑ sea.unep-wcmc.org ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Hoàng Liên Sa Pa National Park 
5. ^ Whc.unesco.org : The Area of ​​Old Carved Stone in Sapa
6. ↑ portal.laocai.gov.vn ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Natural resources of the province of Lào Cai 
7. ↑ ASEAN Regional Center for Biodiversity Conservation ( Memento of the original from June 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ^ Dieter Brötel: French Imperialism in Vietnam - the colonial expansion and the establishment of the Annam-Tongking protectorate 1880–1885. Atlantis-Verlag, Zurich 1971, Franz Steiner-Verlag 1998, ISBN 3-515-03812-4 .
9. ^ Martin H. Petrich: Vietnam. Dumont Reiseverlag 2009, ISBN 978-3-7701-7659-5 .
10. ↑ Kết quả toàn bộ Tổng điều tra Dân số và Nhà ở Việt Nam năm 2009 Phần I: Biểu Tổng hợp. Hanoi, June 2010.
11. ↑ Graphic of the Vietnamese regions in the Vietnamese Wikipedia
12. ↑ Number of administrative units as of 31 December 2008 by province ( Engl. ) General Statistics Office of the Government of Vietnam. Retrieved December 2, 2010.
13. ↑ ^{a b} Districts of Vietnam ( Engl. ) Statoids. Retrieved June 20, 2010.
14. ↑ fallingrain.com: Directory of cities and towns, closely.
15. ↑ pid.adb.org ( Memento of the original from January 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Kunming-Haiphong Transport Corridor: Yen Vien-Lao Cai Railway Upgrading Project 
16. ↑ finanzen.net : Cavico signs Road Construction Agreement for Noi Bai-Lao Cai-Highway
17. ↑ ACI World & Momberger Airport Info: Airport Development News ( en , PDF; 44 kB) airports.org. Archived from the original on October 8, 2006. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 12, 2011. 
18. ^ German Embassy Hanoi : Hospital equipment for the provincial hospital No. 1 in Lao Cai
19. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: portal.laocai.gov.vn : Economic report from 2008
20. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Report on vietsight.com
21. ↑ portal.laocai.gov.vn ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
22. ↑ www.he-c.com : Investment Zones in China
23. ↑ vietnamtourism.com ( Memento of the original from December 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Overland international border gates to China 
24. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Message from the Ministry of Planning and Investment
25. ↑ Press release on www.highbeam.com ( Memento of the original from April 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
26. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: laocai.gov.vn : General Information about Lao Cai
27. ↑ Report of the National Tourism Administration of Vietnam : Sa Pa is still an attractive destination for foreign tourists, eng.

Coordinates: 22 ° 13 '  N , 104 ° 5'  E