Vietnam’s Tay Con Linh range offers unique cultural landscape
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People in Xa Phin village, located in northeast Vietnam’s Tay Con Linh mountain range, maintain a traditional way of life centered around terraced rice fields and unique stilt houses.
The Dao and La Chi ethnic communities have lived in the area for generations, shaping a landscape known as the “roof of northeast Vietnam.” Xa Phin’s terraced fields, which grow a single rice crop each year, are particularly striking due to their location on steep slopes and their varied shapes.
The village is also known for its moss-covered houses. The roofs of these traditional stilt houses, built from palm leaves, accumulate moss over time, some have been in place for 30 years, and blend into the surrounding forests. Residents actively preserve these palm-leaf roofs, using between 8,000 and 10,000 leaves for each one, even as other villages switch to more modern materials.
Reaching Xa Phin requires travel from Ha Giang along National Highway 2 and then a challenging 11km drive up a rough mountain road. However, the journey reveals increasingly impressive views of the terraced fields, forests, and distinctive village landscape. By mid-September, the rice fields turn golden, signalling the harvest season.
