Ban Viet Lake

Hồ Bản Viết is a lake that is beautiful without being famous. It lies in the Trùng Khánh area of Cao Bằng Province. Its quiet is of a very particular kind.

The lake covers about 5 hectares and is divided into 4 arms. From those numbers alone, you can already picture the water: not one even sheet, but a shape that follows the folds between the hills, turns into every small corner of the land, and opens out in unexpected places. Mountains and green forest surround it, and small villages of the Tày and Nùng peoples are scattered along its edges.

Here is a detail few people know. Hồ Bản Viết is not a natural lake. People built it. Work took place in 1967 and 1968, and the lake was officially opened in early 1970. Its first purpose was not to give anyone a view or a photograph, but to water farmland. A canal running more than 6 kilometers carries the water to the hamlets in the south of Phong Châu commune, and on to the area of Chí Viễn commune.

That means the still green surface is also a source of water that the people who live here depend on for their livelihood. It is not only a pretty scene to stop for.

The season that stands out most is late autumn into early winter. Around the lake grow phong hương trees, which people there also call sau sau. In December their leaves turn from green to orange-yellow and then red, and the whole forest around the water becomes a band of color, unusual and soft. The red and yellow of the leaves, the green of the water and the blue-gray of the rocky mountains are all in one place at one time.

Standing at Hồ Bản Viết, the first thing you notice is not a crowded tourist site, but a place where people really live. There are stilt houses, the sound of chickens, flat water and quiet villages. For anyone who wants somewhere without noise or crowds, quiet enough just to sit, look and breathe, Hồ Bản Viết is a fitting choice in Trùng Khánh.

Few would guess that a lake looking this peaceful reaches 50 meters at its deepest point. Beneath that surface lie many years of gathering, and many rainy seasons that flowed in and stayed.

Trùng Khánh is more than the Bản Giốc waterfall. Hồ Bản Viết suits those who want to go more slowly and look deeper into the ordinary life of the Cao Bằng highlands. In December, when the sau sau leaves glow red around the still green water, it may be hard to leave in a hurry.