Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark

Every cliff along the road into the Đồng Văn Karst Plateau is more than a wall of stone. It is a page of a book. Each layer of rock is a stretch of time, and the whole book is more than 550 million years thick.

UNESCO is the science and culture organization of the United Nations. It describes the area as a limestone karst region whose geological history begins in the Cambrian period. In these rocks, people have found fossils of brachiopods, trilobites, foraminifera and corals, along with many other ancient creatures. Some layers mark two great extinctions in the history of the Earth, one about 360 million years ago and one about 250 million years ago.

On October 3, 2010, in Lesvos, Greece, the plateau was recognized as a full member of the Global Geoparks Network. It was the first geopark in Vietnam, and the second in Southeast Asia at that time. A UNESCO Global Geopark is an area with landscapes of international geological importance, managed for protection, education and sustainable development.

The historic core of the plateau covers four old areas of Hà Giang. Two are Quản Bạ and Yên Minh. The other two are Đồng Văn and Mèo Vạc. Since Hà Giang province merged into Tuyên Quang, tourism sources in Tuyên Quang have kept presenting the plateau as a heritage symbol of the region. The whole area covers more than 2,345 square kilometers. Its average height is between 1,000 and 1,600 meters above sea level.

From Quản Bạ inward, every bend and every mountain pass opens a new scene. The limestone mountains grow taller, the valleys fall deeper, and the life of the people on the stone slowly comes into clearer view.

UNESCO points to canyons as the signature feature of the landscape here. One is the Tu Sản Canyon, rated among the deepest in Southeast Asia, at about 700 to 800 meters. It lies on the stretch between Mèo Vạc and the Mã Pí Lèng Pass. The Nho Quế River runs along its floor. Seen from the top of the pass, the river looks like a thread of deep green laid between two upright walls of rock.

But the plateau is more than geology. It is home to 17 ethnic groups, and many communities have lived on this stone for 600 to 800 years. They grow corn in pockets of rock and build houses with walls of earth and stone. They keep their crafts, the music of the khèn and their festivals.

Đồng Văn is where the natural and the cultural heritage meet. Its Old Quarter has about 40 old houses, some dating from 1890, which reflect the architecture of a highland market. The Vương family mansion at Sà Phìn is built of bluestone and pơ mu wood and carved with dragons, phoenixes and bats, symbols of high rank and prosperity. The Lũng Cú Flag Tower stands on the summit of núi Rồng, Dragon Mountain, a lookout toward the country's northern border.

From October to December, the buckwheat flowering season spreads a pink-purple color over the valleys and hillsides. It completely changes the palette of a plateau that is gray-blue all year round.

As the afternoon comes down on the Mã Pí Lèng Pass, the canyon lies far below, with the river at its foot. All around rise limestone ranges that have stood there for more than 550 million years, and cornfields clinging to pockets of rock, made by generation after generation of Hmong and Lô Lô people. Earth, stone, people and time move together here. That is the Đồng Văn Karst Plateau, a land of living heritage.