Mount Na Lay

More than 1,200 stone steps lead up Nà Lay. That is no small number. Yet people in Bắc Sơn have a saying: anyone who has not climbed Nà Lay has not truly seen this valley.

Nà Lay rises in Bắc Quỳnh commune. The commune lies in the Bắc Sơn area of Lạng Sơn Province. It stands about 600 meters above sea level. It is not the highest peak in the region. It is the place chosen for its view, for a simple reason: from the top, the whole Bắc Sơn valley fits into a single glance.

The climb takes a little more than half an hour, up to an hour, depending on health and weather. The distance is short, but every stone step lifts the climber a little higher, a little closer to the view waiting above.

What makes Nà Lay special for Bắc Sơn lies in the land below. Bắc Sơn is not a monotonous stretch of mountains. The province's official tourism site says the valley lies on the Bắc Sơn and Ngân Sơn arc of limestone mountains. Between those mountains lie flat valleys, small fields and villages at the foot of the hills. The contrast between steep limestone and level fields makes a landscape of its own, and only from high up can the whole pattern be seen.

The view is finest at sunrise and at sunset. On some early mornings, mist and cloud can lie low over the fields while the summit already catches the sun. In the late afternoon, golden light slants across the rice fields and villages and gives them colors quite different from those of midday.

Bắc Sơn has a good deal more to offer than scenery. The province's tourism site points to two important layers of history here. The first is archaeological. Many sites have been found that belong to the Bắc Sơn culture, one of Vietnam's prehistoric cultures, dating to the early Neolithic. The second belongs to modern history. The Bắc Sơn Uprising broke out here on September 27, 1940. It is counted as one of the important armed revolutionary struggles before the General Uprising of August 1945 spread across the country.

So from the summit of Nà Lay, a visitor sees more than a beautiful view. The land below has deep layers of culture and history. The Tày are one of the peoples of northern Vietnam. They and the other peoples beside them have lived and struggled here through many generations.

On the summit there is a rest stop, and the microwave relay station is often mentioned as a familiar place for photographs. Standing there and looking down, a visitor understands why the people of Bắc Sơn say what they say.

Down in the valley lies the Quỳnh Sơn community tourism cultural village, with its traditional Tày stilt houses. It is the next part of the story: from looking down on the valley to living inside it.

The early climbers reach the summit of Nà Lay while the whole valley seems not yet awake. Far below, the fields lie quiet, the roofs of the stilt houses come and go in the clouds, and ahead there is only a wide piece of open sky.