The Vietnamese gold lettered gate reads: 'Lào Cai International Border Gate'. Through the arch (and across the bridge) is the Chinese gate with its red lettering that starts with 'China', but that is the limit of my Chinese!
This is the Chinese 'Gate' as it sits on the far bank of the River Nan Chi Hô which joins the Red River near here - don't ask Google, no one has told it these names
Continuing westwards through Lào Cai Province this page touches on the provincial capital, and border city, of Lào Cai. Also below are photographs from the main central valley of the province.
A shrine just beside the border gate
This temple sits close to the bridge, it has that endearing habit, which is not uncommon, of offering in the same courtyard, the defence of ancient lions and a motorbike park
Moving down the Red River, from where it flowed under those bridges, a rural scene of a woman punting her flat boat (made of bamboos strapped together) through the gorge
The gorge in which the woman to the left was punting, she is just by the rocks on the right, half way up the photo. Turning the camera down produced the photograph below
Nearing the bank, you can see the ubiquitous
back basket looking as though it is half her height
The undergrowth between the gorge and the photographer was packed with bananas - the flowers of which make good eating
The punter docks, gaining balance from her pole
On this occasion, our route by the Red River valley on the way to Lao Cái city, turned out to have disappeared under a landslide
On arriving at the blockage we found two diggers already at work. Other travellers were waiting and watching the road being cleared, while enjoying the view of the gorge below - as pictured above
Pedestrians could soon walk through...
...and it was not long before the road appeared
A truck came to remove larger boulders
And within a couple of hours the Jeep could make its...
...way through to the road - hardly a grand highway
Back out of the gorge to familiar terraced hillsides, but...
...a foretaste of what is to come: packed bleak Thai houses
Meanwhile, here in the centre of the province, the views are of
richly wooded hillsides with complex terracing
Semi-circular terraces can seem to have been laid out as ornamental gardens
The hills are still high with the heads of mountains hidden somewhere up in the clouds
Farms so often seem to be perched far above valley floors making farming life hard, although maybe not as hard as in the
north of Ha Giang
Down at village level, the Jeep calls the attention of boys...
...summoning one another to enjoy the novel spectacle
These adults and children are playing a game together which involves a stick reminiscent of hurling or shinty - but I have not discovered what it was
Here another use of public roads, strung out over a considerable distance by...
...this girl, dyeing her yarn
Quite an effort to get the threads up there, but certainly offering tourists
a good photo opportunity
Trailers...
The next Picture Posting
page takes you to the area, just to the south-west of Lào Cai city, which surrounds the hill-town of Sa Pa.
The next page
of the Ruminations Section is headed 'Melrose Station'.
Or go to the contents of the Ruminations Section.
The last page had photos the south-east of Lào Cai Province
Go to a page about a walk in Chennai - with more accompanying children
To another interesting border - between Iran and Turkey
...guide to this site