Ngu Chi Son

Coming along the road through the Tam Đường valley, Ngũ Chỉ Sơn rises in a way no other mountain does. Five stone peaks stand straight up, side by side, like a giant hand reaching out of the forest. Cloud hangs around the summits all year, closing over them and opening again to show corners of gray rock and old forest clinging to the slopes.

The mountain lies in Sơn Bình commune, in Lai Châu Province. It belongs to the Hoàng Liên Sơn range. Local people call it the hand mountain. That is a popular reading of its shape, not an official place name. The Nhân Dân newspaper counts it among the finest peaks to explore around Tam Đường, with rugged ground and striking views, and white cloud drifting around it in every season.

The Hoàng Liên Sơn range runs down from the northwest, and Tam Đường is one of its quieter gateways compared with Sa Pa. For that reason Ngũ Chỉ Sơn has kept a wildness that many other peaks nearby have slowly lost to crowds.

The climbing route is estimated at about 12 kilometers. It leads through primary forest with trees hundreds of years old, and through stands of thảo quả and rhododendrons that bloom with the seasons. At about 2,200 meters, the Cầu Mây waterfall drops between two sheer walls of rock. Its sound carries from far off, before a climber ever sees the water.

For anyone who loves medicinal plants, the life along the trail is what sets this mountain apart. Here grows hoàng liên, the plant that gave the whole Hoàng Liên Sơn range its name. Tam thất, linh chi and many fragrant herbs also grow among the trees. Local families have known these plants for generations and used them in folk medicine. Today they need protection, so that they are not harvested to nothing.

The villages at the foot of Ngũ Chỉ Sơn are home mostly to the Hmong and other ethnic groups of the Tam Đường area. This is the real living space of the families there, tied to this range for many generations.

The ground is rough, with sheer cliffs, narrow paths and steep climbs. Higher up, thick fog can cover the whole valley below within minutes. The scene turns strange and cut off from the world beneath.

Ngũ Chỉ Sơn is not yet a mass tourism destination. That is why the forest here is still whole, and the precious medicinal plants still grow wild. In the early morning on the stone summit, cloud spreads below like a quiet white sea. Five stone fingers stand upright against the sky, with nothing around them but cloud and the silence of the high mountain.