Cun Slope

National Highway 6 starts in Hà Đông, in Hanoi. Along its more than 500 kilometers it runs far to the northwest and ends at Mường Lay, in Điện Biên Province. For motorbike travelers and long-distance drivers in the north of Vietnam, it may be the most famous road of all.

It is also one of the longest highways in the north, and one of those with the most mountain passes. Many well-known slopes and passes lie along it, and Cun Slope, which Vietnamese call Dốc Cun, is one of the names people mention most.

Official sources place Cun Slope on the stretch that runs through the old Hòa Bình province, now part of Phú Thọ. It begins in the Thái Bình area of the city of Hòa Bình. It ends in Thu Phong commune, in the Cao Phong area. The slope is between 5 and 6 kilometers long. It is steep, with many sharp bends and plenty of traffic.

The Ministry of Transport lists a stretch of the highway in Hòa Bình, from kilometer marker 78.3 to marker 153, as the part where slopes and passes most often bring landslides and slippery surfaces. Cun Slope lies inside that stretch.

The slope, and others like it on this highway, shows what driving in the mountains really asks of a driver. The Hòa Bình newspaper once reported on unsafe traffic here. The road is narrow, the bends hide what comes next, fog settles in the cold season, and many heavy trucks pass through.

From 2018, the Ministry of Transport also began a trial of a special guardrail fitted with rollers near Cun Slope, to lower the risk of accidents. That is not said to frighten anyone. It shows that the people who manage the road are working to make it safer.

Highway 6 joins the lowlands to the Northwest. On that long journey, Cun Slope is only one stretch. Yet it carries the spirit of the whole road: grand, demanding, and asking respect from every driver.