Tiếng ViệtHA GIANG – Each spring, travelers from all over return to the rocky plateau of Hà Giang to capture the vibrant and colorful life of the local people.
The road leading to Pho Cao winds through mist and clouds, passing earthen houses and white plum blossoms in full bloom. Phố Cáo lies along National Highway 4C, about 30 km from the center of Dong Van. Here, the traditional yellow earthen houses still remain, warm in winter and cool in summer.
A spring afternoon in Pho Cao with stone fences surrounding old houses, beside stacks of straw and blooming plum and peach blossoms.
**Photographer Nguyen Huu Thong (from Bac Giang), a member of the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists, the author of this photo series, said that every spring he often wanders through the highlands of Ha Giang to create his works—from Pho Cao, Lung Tao, Sung La, and Sà Phìn in Đong Van to Tráng Kìm or Hoàng Su Phì.
“ I have been photographing spring in Hà Giang since 2010, and each trip brings a different feeling. The images of peach trees growing beside stone fences and traditional earthen houses are now much fewer than before. Fibro-cement roofing sheets are replacing yin-yang tiles, and modern bricks are replacing earthen walls,” Thông shared. 🌸📷
Children innocently play beneath peach trees in full bloom.
See more: Book a limousine from Ha Noi to Ha Giang.” 🚐
A couple plows the fields for the new crop on an early spring morning in Phố Cáo. Photographer Nguyễn Hữu Thông shared that after three months of winter dormancy, the rocky plateau awakens with vibrant colors, while birdsong echoes across the highlands of Hà Giang. Warm sunshine replaces the drizzly days. Peach and plum blossoms show off their beauty against the gray stone landscape, while mustard flowers fill the valleys. As the land sheds its cover of wild grass, a new farming season begins.
Two H’Mong girls among the yellow mustard flowers in Pho Cao.
In the spring weather of Phố Cáo, a group of locals share smiles while enjoying traditional highland dishes and rice wine.
Sung La in spring. This highland commune lies along National Highway 4C, connecting Yen Minh with the center of the Dong Van Karst Plateau. When visitors reach the top of the slope at the three-way junction leading to Pho Bang, the valley of Sung La appears before their eyes, with earthen houses surrounded by the yellow of mustard flowers and the white and pink colors of plum and peach blossoms.
A young H’Mong woman dries clothes on peach tree branches in Sung La, Dong Van.
A H’Mong girl in Sung La.
See more:: Affordable all-inclusive airport taxi from Noi Bai International Airport to Ha Giang.” 🚖✈️
A father cuts his child’s hair on the porch of their home in Lung Cu, Dong Van. Visitors to Ha Giang often stop to check in at the Lung Cu Flag Tower, located on the summit of Dragon Mountain at about 1,470 meters above sea level, in the northernmost commune of the country.
When experiencing spring on the rocky plateau, visitors should not forget to enjoy breakfast at the weekend market in Dong Van. The photo ‘Breakfast at the Market’ won the Grand Prize at the international photo contest organized by Smithsonian Magazine in 2018. A year later, the photo also received a Silver Medal at the 10th International Artistic Photography Festival in Vietnam.
Source: Compilation.
