La Bang and Suoi Kem

Most people who hear Tam Đảo think of the mountain town in the old Vĩnh Phúc province, now part of Phú Thọ. They picture fog, French villas, steep stone slopes and roadside stalls. But the Tam Đảo range runs 80 kilometers from northwest to southeast, and it crosses three provinces. Phú Thọ is one. Thái Nguyên and Tuyên Quang are the other two. The Thái Nguyên part lies on the eastern slope, where far fewer people go. There are no villas and no cable car there, only forest, streams and tea country.

Tam Đảo National Park grew from an older protected forest, set up as a national forest in 1977. In 1996, the prime minister approved the investment project that turned it into a national park. Of the park's nearly 35,000 hectares, more than 26,000 are forest. Humid evergreen rainforest covers 70 percent of the whole park.

The main way into the eastern slope is La Bằng, a commune in Đại Từ. From there, a concrete road runs through tea fields to the foot of the mountain. It continues to a special-use forest of the national park and to the stream called Suối Kẹm.

Suối Kẹm rises in the high mountains of Tam Đảo. It flows down over many rocky rapids and wide stretches of boulders, and the water is cool and clear. The stream is the highlight of the Tiên Sa tourist area inside the park. Along the path, each fine view has been given a name. Vực Thẳm and Bàn Cờ Tiên are two of them. Voi Rắt and Thác Trắng are two more. These are names used for tourism, not geological terms.

La Bằng holds more than nature. It is where the first Communist Party cell of the Thái Nguyên provincial Party organization was founded, in 1936. The site was ranked a national historic site in 1999.

Local culture is still alive here. The Tày and the Nùng are two peoples of northern Vietnam with closely related languages and similar cultures. Their folk songs are kept here, along with Then singing and the music of the đàn tính. Then is a ritual practice in the spiritual life of the Tày. The Dao keep their own ritual, called Cấp Sắc. Cấp sắc is a coming-of-age ritual of the Dao people.

The tea country of La Bằng connects people with the landscape. Along the concrete road, green tea fields stretch down toward the foot of the mountain. Above them are patches of cloud and the tops of the Tam Đảo forests.

The park has a duty to protect the forest ecosystem and the genetic resources of rare plants and animals. It also carries out scientific research and teaches the community. On the eastern slope, the forest is still whole.

In these forests, people have recorded the Tam Đảo salamander, a rare amphibian. It hides under slabs of stone beside the streams and leaves almost no sign. Just knowing it lives here is remarkable.

The eastern slope of Tam Đảo at La Bằng still has few visitors, and it has not been heavily exploited. The forest is green and the streams are clear. The sound of water running over the rocky rapids still drowns out every other sound.