Mong Cai Border Gate

Móng Cái sits at the northeastern corner of Vietnam, and the easiest way to know it is to turn in a slow circle. Ahead lies the international border gate. Beyond it is Dongxing, a city in Guangxi, China. To the east, the sea at Trà Cổ rolls out a long beach of pale sand. Between the gate and the shore stands a city that has been at this far edge of the country for centuries.

A crossing is only part of Móng Cái. The city brings together three very different things: the border, history and culture, and the sea with its islands.

The Móng Cái international border gate has had its own management board since 1998, set up by the Quảng Ninh provincial government. Ever since, the gate has handled the goods moving in and out and the people passing between the two countries every day. That makes it a lively place of trade, of a kind few towns in Vietnam can match.

Inside the gate area there is also a memorial house for Bác Hồ. Bác Hồ, or Uncle Hồ, is the name by which Hồ Chí Minh is widely known. Nearby stands a border marker numbered 1369. The number is no accident. It is also the number of the decision that created the gate's management board in 1998, and it has become the gate's own symbol.

Beyond the gate area lie Sa Vĩ and Trà Cổ beach.

Sa Vĩ is a headland at the very end of the country. A guide document from the Móng Cái city government explains the name. Sa means sand and vĩ means tail, so Sa Vĩ is the tail of the sand. It also has a popular name, mũi Gót. Its emblem is three dương trees, linked to two lines by the poet Tố Hữu. The lines go: "From Trà Cổ, the forest of dương trees, to Cà Mau, the forest of đước trees." Sa Vĩ is the first brushstroke of the northeastern coast, with a long view south along the shore.

Trà Cổ beach lies right beside it. The same city government's tourism document gives the length of the beach as 17 kilometers, from Sa Vĩ headland to Ngọc headland. It also puts the beach about 8 kilometers from the city center. The sand is fine and white. A line of phi lao trees runs along the shore. The sea is calm in the early morning. This is a northern beach, without the big waves of central Vietnam.

On May 8, 1961, President Hồ Chí Minh came to Trà Cổ. He met the people of the island commune and the Ba Thu fishing cooperative, right on this shore. A local guide document says he urged them to plant trees to block the wind and hold the sand. The aim was for Trà Cổ to become a green, clean and beautiful seaside resort. The rows of phi lao along the beach today are partly the result of that advice.

But the culture of Trà Cổ reaches well beyond the sea.

Behind the line of trees stands the Trà Cổ communal house, one of the most distinctive in the northeastern border region. It was built in 1461, under the Later Lê dynasty. In 1974 it was ranked a national monument of architecture and art. Then, in 2023, it was raised to a special national monument. Its festival is held every year from the 29th day of the fifth lunar month to the 3rd day of the sixth. It is best known for a procession carrying the deity out on the sea and for the Ông Voi contest. In 2019 the festival was recognized as national intangible cultural heritage.

Near the communal house is the Trà Cổ church, whose full name is Tràng Lộ church. It was built in 1880 and restored in 1995. Together, the two buildings show something very particular about Trà Cổ. A village communal house, a church, a pagoda and a beach all share one area, which reflects the varied history of the people of this border land.

Móng Cái looks inland, out to sea, and across the border all at once. Those three directions give this place its own character.