Ma Pi Leng Pass

The road over the Mã Pí Lèng Pass has a story to tell.

The name comes from the Quan Hỏa language and is tied to the image of a horse's nose ridge. It was chosen to say how steep and dangerous the pass is. People named it after the shape of the land, which suits a highland of rock.

The pass lies on the Hạnh Phúc Road. It sits in the area between Đồng Văn and Mèo Vạc, about 1,200 meters above sea level, according to UNESCO. Today the area belongs to Tuyên Quang province, since Hà Giang province was merged into it. In 2009, the Mã Pí Lèng area was ranked a national scenic landscape by Decision 4194 of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Yet the most important story here is not the view. It is the story of the road.

The decision to open the Hạnh Phúc Road came in 1959. It was to run from the former city of Hà Giang to Đồng Văn. From there it would go on to Mèo Vạc. The section from Đồng Văn to Mèo Vạc is 24 kilometers long and crosses rocky mountains. On the Mã Pí Lèng slope alone, a provincial source says, more than 1,000 young volunteers from many provinces had to hang from the cliff face. They chiseled, drilled and set explosives there for 11 months. They had no machines, and no way to reach the cliff from below. There were only people and rock.

Standing at the lookout on the pass, looking down at the canyon and the Nho Quế River, a person sees more than geology. The road itself is also the result of human labor, on ground that seemed impossible to cut a road through.

The Tu Sản canyon under the pass is one of the deepest in Vietnam. The national tourism authority puts it at about 800 meters deep and about 1.7 kilometers long. The Nho Quế River runs along its floor. From a boat on the river, at the foot of the canyon, the view is reversed. Sheer walls rise toward the clouds, and the river looks small and green, like a thread.

The pass has one more place for those who want to go deeper. It is the white cliff, also called the divine cliff, about 12 kilometers from Đồng Văn and Mèo Vạc. A footpath of about 3 kilometers leads to it from the Youth Volunteers Monument. On one side is the mountain wall, on the other a deep drop, and between them a narrow path runs to a face of silver-white stone outlined against the sky.

Many people call it the first among the great passes of the rocky plateau. That is a popular name, not an official ranking. From here the canyon drops 800 meters, and at the bottom of the mountain the Nho Quế River runs deep green.