Sa Pa

Location
Sapa is a beautiful, mountainous town in northern Vietnam along the border with China. Located at 1500 meters (4921 feet) above sea level in Vietnam's remote northwest mountains, Sapa is famous for both its fine, rugged scenery and also its rich cultural diversity. Sapa is an incredibly picturesque town that lies in the Hoang Lien Son mountain range near the Chinese border in northwestern Vietnam, known as "the Tonkinese Alps".

Ethnic minorities
Many ethnic minorities live in and around Sapa. Excluding the Kinh people or ethnic Vietnamese, eight different ethnic minority groups are found in Sapa. They include H'mong (pronounced Mong), Dao (pronounced Yao), Tay, Giay (pronounced Zai), Muong, Thai, Hoa (ethnic Chinese) and Xa Pho (a denomination of the Phu La minority group). However, the last four groups comprise less than 500 people in total. The population of the district is estimated at 31,652 (1993) of which 52% are H'mong, 25% are Dao, 15% are Kinh, 5% are Tay and 2% are Giay. Around 3,300 people live in Sapa town, and the remainder are peasant farmers distributed unevenly throughout the district.

Many older women make items such as ethnic clothes and blankets to sell to tourists. Striking up a conversation with them can be very rewarding and their spoken English is impressive. Sadly, doing this in Sapa town will sometimes lead to a scrum as other vendors taste a potential sale.

Children from these ethnic minorities often begin to support their families financially through selling trinkets to tourists. Do not encourage this by buying from children - buy from adults. They peddle small metal or silver trinkets, embroidered pillow cases and friendship bands in the main town, and often walk for several hours from their surrounding villages to reach the town. At the end of the day, some take a motorbike ride back to their village, some walk home and some sleep in the market.

Children have poor or non-existent dental hygiene. As the signs around town say, do not give them candy or sweets - it will cause dental issues. If you want to give them something, safe toys from your home are highly regarded.

There are schools in Sapa's villages. Most of them lack essential learning tools like books, pens or pencils. Give those to the teachers if you'd like.

Girls and boys get married young (around 15-18) and often have two children by the time they are 20 years old. Poverty has led to a great number of girls leaving their villages each day to go sell trinkets in Sapa town.

Weather
The billboard in Sapa states proudly of its weather: "Four seasons in one day." Chilly winter in the early morning, spring time after sunrise, summer in afternoon and cold winter at night.

In winter (the 4 months between November and February), the weather in Sapa is invariably cold, wet and foggy (temperatures can drop to freezing and there was snow in 2011). Travelers have rolled into town on a glorious clear day and proceed to spend a week trapped in impenetrable fog. When it is like this there really isn't very much to do. Also, the rice paddys are brown & empty (they are planted in spring), the paths very muddy & slippery & the glorious vistas of summer are completely hidden in the mist. If you choose to visit in winter, bring along warm clothing or prepare to be cold and miserable, as many hotels do not have efficient heating in their rooms. During that time, the more upscale hotels that do have heating fill up quickly, so make reservations in advance if you can afford not to freeze. (Or don't go there in winter time).

It rains very often during the month of August, especially in the mornings - though this is also the time when scenery is at its greenest and most beautiful.

History
It is most likely that Sa Pa was first inhabited by highland minorities of the Hmong and Yao groups, as well as by smaller numbers of Tày and Giay, these being the four main minority groups still present in SaPa district today. The Kinh (lowland Vietnamese) never originally colonised this highest of Việt Nam’s valleys, which lies in the shadow of Phan-Xi-Pǎng (Fansipan, 3143 meters), the highest peak in the country.

It was only when the French debarked in highland Tonkin in the late 1880s that Sa Pa, or Chapa as the French called it, began to appear on the national map. In the following decade, the future site of Sa Pa town started to see military parties as well as missionaries from the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP) visit. The French military marched from the Red River Delta into the northern mountainous regions as part of Tonkin’s ‘pacification’. In 1894-96 the border between China and Tonkin was formally agreed upon and the Sa Pa area, just to the south of this frontier, was placed under French authority. From 1891 the entire Lao cai region, including Sa Pa, came under direct colonial military administration so as to curtail banditry and political resistance on the sensitive northern frontier.

The first permanent French civilian resident arrived in Sa Pa in 1909. With its attractive continental climate, health authorities believed the site had potential. By 1912 a military sanatorium for ailing officers had been erected along with a fully fledged military garrison. Then, from the 1920s onwards, several wealthy professionals with enough financial capital also had a number of private villas built in the vicinity.

At the end of the Second World War a long period of hostilities began in Tonkin that was to last until 1954. In the process, nearly all of the 200 or so colonial buildings in or around Sa Pa were destroyed, either by Việt Minh sympathisers in the late 1940s, or, in the early 1950s by French air raids. The vast majority of the Viet population fled for their lives, and the former town entered a prolonged sleep.

In the early 1960s, thanks to the New Economic Zones migration scheme set up by the new Socialist regime, new inhabitants from the lowlands started to migrate to the region.

The short 1979 occupation of the northern border region by Chinese troops had little impact on Sa Pa town, but did force the Kinh (lowland Vietnamese) population out for a month.

In 1993 the last obstacle to Sa Pa’s full rebirth as a prominent holiday destination was lifted as the decision was made to open the door fully to international tourism. Sa Pa was back on the tourist trail again, this time for a newly emerging local elite tourist crowd, as well as international tourists.

In 2006, the Chairman of The People’s Committee of Sapa Province was elected to The Communist Party Central Committee as the youngest ever member (born in 1973).

Activities
Numerous activities you can enjoy in Mai Châu includes photographing, trekking and enjoying the food prepared by locals.

Specialties
Sa Pa is famous for several dishes. Some of which are "thang co", pau play day cake and salmon sour hotpot.
 * Thang Co is the traditional food of Hmoong people and it has been cooked for hundreds years. Thang Co is a type of soup which is made of horsemeat, horse’s viscera and horse’s bone. You might feel a little bit panic-stricken when hearing about the ingredients but that feeling will be blown away once you taste it. Cooking this dish not only requires time but also the skill of cooks. The seasonings comprises of 12 spices from cardamon, ginger, citronella, anise to cinnamon twig.
 * The locals stew horsemeat with these 12 spices in a big pot within a couple of hours. To elevate the flavor of Thang Co soup, they serve it with fresh vegetable and a special red hot pepper name Muong Khuong.


 * Pau play day cake has been in Viet Nam for a long time since the Hung King. Time flies, the cooking manner has been changed but the original taste of Pau Play Day cake still remains.


 * This cake is made of glutinous rice and green peas. This white round cake is not easy to make as it looks. Choosing the best glutinous rice is the most important part of all. The rice need to be dried out carefully. Then, it is soaked in water for 2 hours and steamed till the rice well done. Afterwards, soaked rice is poured into a big wooden rice polisher and grind until well-kneaded, viscid and sticky. Filling is made from green peas which softly and smoothly isgrinded. When you break into the cake, you could see a beautiful green mixture inside.


 * Fish, more importantly salman fish in a mountainous region as Sapa? It's like a joke, right?


 * But it's not!


 * Sapa has an extremely cool weather all year round and the water here is pretty cold that is suitable for salmon to exist. It's explained why salmon sour hot pot is a familiar food to local people. The food has a timeless quality. No matter when you enjoy this hot pot, your eyes will littery light up talking about the dish.


 * The real star of the hot bot is its broth. It's a combination of several vegetable types and freshly caught salmon. Unlike other fish, salmon brings to diners an elegant and delicate flavor. Nestle up to a restaurant on Sapa hillroad and make an order of salmon sour hot pot, your heat beat is just a little bit faster.

Viet Travel
Viet Travel offers a tour to Sa Pa with the estimated cost of 397 USD. The trip lasts for 6 days, passengers will depart from Ho Chi Minh city and the trip includes various interesting activities you can take part in: More information about this tour can be found here.
 * Ha Noi: visit Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
 * Lao Cai: visit Lao Cai market
 * Bai Dinh Pagoda: explore the culture and religion at Bai Dinh Pagoda
 * Fansipan mountain: use cable car to get to the top of the mountain.
 * Yen Tu mountain: visit Buddhist statues and pagodas.
 * Ha Long Bay: witness the magnificence of one of the natural wonders of the world.