Fansipan Peak

3,143 meters. That is the height of Fansipan, the highest mountain in Vietnam. It is also the highest mountain in all three countries of old Indochina: Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

So people have come to call Fansipan by a name that is both friendly and grand: the Roof of Indochina. It is a name given by those who love the mountains, not an official title.

That number is so large it is hard to picture all at once. Think of the mountain instead as a giant ladder standing in the sky, with something remarkable hidden on every rung. The way up can be climbed one rung at a time, from the foot of the mountain to the summit.

The first rung lies deep inside the earth. The whole mountain is one enormous block of granite. It formed deep underground more than 250 million years ago. The people of the area also call the mountain by another name, Hủa Xi Pan, which means a giant, teetering slab of rock. Some explain that in the Hmong language, Fansipan means the mountain of rhododendrons, because this is the homeland of that flower. One name speaks of stone, the other speaks of flowers, and both are true of this mountain.

In the old days, there was only one way to reach that figure of 3,143, and that was on foot. The trail wound through the forests of Hoàng Liên National Park, up steep and dangerous slopes. The trek took at least two days, and sometimes as long as five days and nights. Climbers had to sleep out in the forest.

Then, in November 2013, work began on a cable car up Fansipan. After more than 800 days of construction, the cable car opened on February 2, 2016. From then on, a two-day climb shrank to about 15 minutes.

The trip usually begins with a small train. The Mường Hoa mountain railway runs for 1.7 kilometers, and the ride takes about six minutes. Through the train window, the Mường Hoa valley opens out below. Its terraced rice fields follow one another, wrapped around the hillsides. Down there, the cable cars are waiting.

Each cabin carries up to 35 people. It is as big as a small room that can fly. The cable stretches 6,292.5 meters. From the lower station to the upper one, the cabin lifts its passengers another 1,410 meters. When it first opened, this cable car held two world records for non-stop three-rope cable cars. It was the longest, and it had the greatest height difference between its two stations.

During those 15 minutes, the forested mountains drift slowly by below. Clouds glide right past the glass windows. At times there is nothing below but a sea of white cloud, and the ground disappears from view.

Then comes a very special rung, 2,600 meters. From that height upward, on the high cliffs, grows a tree found only around the summit of Fansipan. It is the Fansipan fir. A grown tree stands 15 to 30 meters tall and can bear the bitter cold. Some trees have lived for several hundred years. In the wild, only a little more than 500 trees remain. Sometimes a tree bears cones only once in three to five years. Each fir clinging to the cliff is a precious elder of the mountain forest.

The fir is the symbol of Hoàng Liên National Park, the forest that surrounds Fansipan. The park was founded in 2002. On April 15, 2006, it was recognized as an ASEAN Heritage Park. The forest is home to 2,847 species of higher vascular plants. It also shelters 555 species of land vertebrates. Rhododendrons alone on Fansipan come in dozens of species. Some rhododendron canopies are already 300 or 400 years old, and when their season comes they burst into brilliant bloom.

At about 2,900 meters, the mountain takes on a completely different feeling. From here to the summit stretches the Fansipan spiritual complex, which opened in early 2018. Higher than 3,000 meters stands Kim Sơn Bảo Thắng Tự, the largest Buddhist building on the summit. The great bronze statue of Amitabha Buddha here stands at the highest altitude of any bronze Amitabha statue in Asia. The statue rests in silence among the clouds and sky, on the roof of all Indochina.

The last rung has to be climbed on foot. One way is to walk about 600 steps. The other is to take the Fansipan mountain railway on to Trúc Mây station, then walk about 50 more steps. Those who choose the 600 steps can try counting each one silently. Ten steps, 50 steps, 100 steps, and the breath starts to come fast. By the 600th step, the marker on the summit is right there ahead.

On the summit, clouds hang about in every season. Some days the sky is clear, and the eye can see in every direction. Mountain peaks rise in tiers, one after another, all the way to the horizon. Other days the clouds roll in, and from the top there is nothing all around but white.

In winter, the temperature on the summit of Fansipan can drop to minus 9 degrees Celsius. It is one of the few places in Southeast Asia where ice and snow can be seen. At times the snow lies more than half a meter deep. Snow in a tropical land sounds like a fairy tale, and yet it is real.

Two days on the trail for the climbers of the past. Then 15 minutes floating in a cabin. The last 600 steps, taken on foot. All of it wrapped up in a single number, 3,143 meters.

And when a hand finally rests on that marker, the number is no longer just a figure on a page. The wind blows across the summit. Below, the clouds drift past the cliffs where the old firs still hold fast. Farther out, the whole Hoàng Liên range spreads away like giant waves of stone, silent under the wide sky.