1. Where is Lung Tao village?
Lung Tao is a commune of Dong Van district, Ha Giang province, Vietnam. About 20 km west of Dong Van town center, about 133 km northeast of Ha Giang city and about 430 km north of Hanoi capital.
2. How is Lung Tao village unique?
Is a commune in the northern border region of Vietnam. This place is divided into 16 villages with a total area of more than 21km2. And is mainly inhabited by ethnic minorities.
Local people maintain the old lifestyle, cultivating upland fields to make a living. Though their life is even poor, people always keep a smile on their faces every day.
You will definitely be surprised with the natural landscape here. It is rustic, honest, close and gentle like the people here. Blessed with beautiful scenery by nature. Local people take advantage of planting more forests of sarcophagus trees and buckwheat flowers. In order to serve tourists coming to visit and taking photos. So if you have the opportunity to travel to Dong Van, remember to spend time exploring this beautiful, peaceful Lung Tao village.
3. When is the best time to visit Lung Tao village?
Each season, Lung Tao village wears a “shirt” with different colors and weather. It creates its own uniqueness. You can refer to the special times below to travel to Dong Van.
- Flower blooming season (January – February): In the early spring months, Lung Tao village is filled with brilliant flowers. From sweet pink peach blossoms, white plum blossoms, to bright yellow mustard flowers. You can walk along the roads, visit villages. Or going to Sung La valley to enjoy the poetic scenery of blooming flowers.
- Rice flower season (March – April): After the peach and plum blossoms have withered, the rice flower season comes. It replaces Lung Tao village with a new bright red shirt. The weather has gradually warmed up. It is suitable for you to wear beautiful dresses and take photos with the brilliant rice flower trees.
- Falling water season (April – May): Spring has passed, it is time for Lung Tao village to enter the pouring water season. The season of plowing on terraced fields. You can learn about life, culture, and enjoy the joyful, bustling atmosphere of the people here. The terraced fields are also a super nice photo spot.
- Ripe rice season (September – October): If you can’t go to Lung Tao during the rice planting season, you can go to Lung Tao during the ripe rice season. The golden terraced fields sparkling in the sunlight are a beautiful scene you should not miss.
- Buckwheat flower season (October – December): At the end of the year, the cold wind comes and Lung Tao village enters the buckwheat flower season. Fields of flowers bloom, covering the mountains and hills, creating a romantic, picturesque scene. The flower fields change from white to pink, purple to dark red. They provide impressive backgrounds for you to enjoy “virtual living”.
4. How to move to Lung Tao village?
You will have many different options moving here. If you are not familiar with the roads, have weak steering or are traveling to Ha Giang as a family, with children or the elderly. You should take a passenger car. Because it will be safe and save you time.
After arriving in Ha Giang city, you continue to move to Lung Tao. You can choose to take a taxi, rent a motorbike in Ha Giang city or go on a tour.
For motorbike tours, most of the locals will drive, so you can completely rest assured. Taking a tour by car, you will have to walk to visit some places deep inside the villages.
4.1 From Hanoi To Dong Van
4.1.1 By personal vehicle:
If you want to freely arrange your itinerary, you can go to Dong Van by motorbike or private car. The distance from Hanoi to Dong Van is about 320km, taking 7 to 8 hours to travel. From Hanoi, you follow Highway 2 to Ha Giang, then continue along Highway 4C to Dong Van. Tourists need to pay attention to plan a clear route and choose a suitable resting place to avoid fatigue.
4.1.2 By passenger car:
This is the way to travel to Dong Van chosen by many people. They both ensure health and save time. In order to be able to rest, you should choose night buses. Time frames from 8:30 p.m to 10 p.m, so you have more time to sleep on the bus. You can easily catch buses from My Dinh bus station in Hanoi traveling to Dong Van.
4.2 From Dong Van To Lung Tao village
Starting from the center of Dong Van town, you move along Highway 4C southwest about 15 km. Then come to a fork in the road. You turn right onto the inter district road, also known as National Flagpole Road. Then move north about 4 km to reach Lung Tao village.
5. Activities and experiences in Lung Tao village
In the middle of the undulating rocky plateau, Lung Tao village appears like a “muse” lying “shyly” in the middle of the mountains. The scenery here is not only simple, rustic, ancient but also very poetic. And below are the attractive points of the border commune:
5.1 Admiring buckwheat flowers
Among many places to view buckwheat flowers in Ha Giang, Lung Tao is one of the top places to view the most beautiful flowers. Buckwheat flowers are not only grown in the fields and mountainsides. But also along the roads around the commune. You can also easily see the buckwheat flowers blooming.
Amidst the majestic and pristine nature, Lung Tao buckwheat flowers have made the natural picture here much more gentle and poetic. You will be fascinated by the delicate, colorful petals and sweet scent. All create a colorful atmosphere.
With vast flower fields, you will get beautiful “virtual life” photos. Don’t forget to wear pretty, outstanding and cute clothes to take photos with flowers.
5.2 Visiting Ha Sung ancient house
This place belongs to Ha Sung village, located near Sa Phin junction, right behind the cat ear rocky valley. From the intersection, you travel about 3km to get there.
The structure and design of the house is likened to the Vuong family mansion. The Ha Sung ancient house was built on a stone mound and built more than a century ago. The architecture of the house is a combination of the indigenous H’Mong culture and the Southern Chinese people.
The ancient house is divided into 3 blocks. The middle block is higher than the other 2 blocks. The house is made from wood combined with stone. With a very solid tiled roof built by a group of Hoa Nam workers.
Previously, Ha Sung’s house was the largest and most majestic mansion in the area. Up to now, the house has been lived in by 7 generations.
You will not only be impressed with the unique design of the house. But also the stone bathtub built in the middle of the yard. Or poppy flower motifs decorated everywhere in the house. You will feel like you are lost in an ancient space from a long time ago.
5.3 Admiring the ancient walled house
Not only known for Ha Sung ancient house, Lung Tao village is also famous for ancient houses with stone walls surrounding the house. The walls of the house are made of earth tinted yellow by time or the roof is old and worn out
Most of the houses here were built a long time ago. But the design and architecture of the house are still very solid. After a long period of rain, wind, and storms, the houses still retain their original design.
It bears the traditional culture of ethnic minorities living here. In particular, along both sides of the road in the commune, there are large, beautiful, shady trees planted in the commune. This place is as beautiful as the European scenery in famous movies.
5.4 Learning about the culture and life of indigenous people
The culture of the highland people here really has a great attraction to motivate you to explore and learn. It is their friendliness and closeness with their always smiling faces. The images of indigenous people going to the fields every day to farm. Or children playing on the roads here are truly captivatingly beautiful.
You can sit and talk with local people, listen to their stories to learn about their lives and unique culture. And you will get memorable photos when taking photos with the people here.
6. Specialties when traveling to Lung Tao village
Traveling to Lung Tao village, you will not only admire the majestic and poetic natural landscape. But you will also have the opportunity to enjoy the unique dishes of this beautiful land.
Lung Tao buckwheat is so famous, there is no reason why you should miss the buckwheat flower cake when coming here. A natural cake with an extremely attractive unique flavor.
There’s nothing better than sitting and admiring the scenery and enjoying delicious, rich and floral-flavored cakes. In addition, there are also specialty dishes of Dong Van and Ha Giang such as Trang Kim rice noodles, Soup rice rolls, Thang Co, Men Men, smoked buffalo meat, sausage,… for you to enjoy. Surely the dishes with rich flavors of the mountains and forests will make you linger forever.
7. Accommodation when traveling to Lung Tao village
Traveling to Lung Tao village, Dong Van district. You can refer to some of the accommodation facilities below.
7.1 Hotels:
- Hoang Ngoc Hotel. Address: Dong Van Town, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
- Lam Tung Hotel. Address: Group 3, Dong Van Town, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
- Dai Lam Hotel. Address: 115 Tran Phu Street, Dong Van Town, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
- Huyen Tuyen Hotel. Address: Group 1, Dong Van Town, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
- Tam Giac Mach Hotel. Address: Group 7, Dong Van Town, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
7.2 Guesthouses:
- Binh Minh Hostel. Address: Group 2, Dong Van Town, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
- Ancient Town Guesthouse. Address: No. 29 Group 3, Dong Van Town, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
- Huyen Tram Guesthouse. Address: Dong Van Town, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
- Dong Van B&B Guesthouse. Address: Lane 2, 19/5 Street, Dong Van Town, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
- Ly Hoan Guesthouse. Address: Group 3, Dong Van Town, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
7.3 Homestays:
- Dinh Thuan Homestay. Address: Sung La, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
- Homestay Hai An. Address: Group 1, Dong Van Town, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
- Phuong Vy Homestay. Address: Dong Van Town, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
- Lam Giang Homestay Dong Van. Address: Tran Phu, Dong Van Town, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
- Hao Quang Homestay. Address: Group 5, Dong Van Town, Dong Van, Ha Giang.
8. Some important notes when traveling to Lung Tao village
To make your trip to Ha Giang truly safe and complete, you can refer to some notes below:
- Being a border commune, the road is quite difficult to travel. You should choose a motorbike for convenient transportation. You make sure to have a steady handle. Carrying the necessary documents and obey road traffic laws.
- If you don’t know the way, you can use the Ha Giang tourist map. Using an app on your phone or asking local people for directions. When asking for directions, you should use polite sentences to show your respect for the local people.
- Lung Tao is located quite close to Dong Van town, you can arrange a time to visit the day tour. Then return to town to rest and eat. If you want to live like a local, you can ask local people to stay.
- Don’t forget to bring a fully charged phone and register on the Internet. It’s useful and necessary to take photos or find directions.
- Wearing comfortable, lightweight clothes and wearing soft-soled, low-heeled sneakers for convenient movement.
- You should bring bottled water and snacks to replenish energy midway when needed.
Instead of a list of places to visit, it is a exploration of how a culture is lived, how it is maintained, how it is passed on, and so on. It is a natural fit within a travel plan that is focused on people, cultures, and/or places rather than simply places to visit, so it is a great fit for a traveler looking to have a deeper travel experience, such as those that can be had within a travel plan that focuses on cultural experiences in Ha Giang, which provides context and meaning to the place beyond the road itself. The way Origin Vietnam approaches each place is respectful to local life and local heritage.
