Mu Cang Chai is a rural district of Yen Bai province, on the side of North West region of Vietnam, which is near 300 kilometers from Hanoi. Over the past few years, Mu Cang Chai has become a popular destination for tourists, researchers and photographers.
Mu Cang Chai owns 700 hectares of terraced rice fields, with 70 percent at three communes: La Pan Tan, Che Cu Nha, De Xu Phinh. This traditional cultural heritage of an ethnic minority was recognized as a national landscape by the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism of Vietnam. The temperate of Mu Cang Chai is the average temperature all-year round is 18.5 Celsius degrees so when the sunset comes, the district is blanked in mist and makes tourists feel they are in late winter of the lowland.
Due to the landscape's steeply sloping topography, the terraced fields are quite narrow; the difference between terraces to terraces is about 1m to 1.5m, demanding to keep the water sources on the land and ground for growing rice on the slope of mountain. So Hmong people think a way to keep water by make the land coast on the mountain to create the leveling rice terrace fields. The Mu Cang Chai Tours The pick-up point for the water source was taken from the source field upper points such as stream, and waterfalls where is important is higher to overcome down the low points of rice terrace fields, the duo used to bamboo tree that is cut half of it for a tool of getting water into the fields, according to Hmong People’s experience of working on it, they get water into the first terrace then make the water door to second terrace in the middle of fielding coast, then opening the gate in the ending of coast. That experience to avoid the flooding and wash the soil fertility.
And to create the contour of each piece of land, Hmong people makes the balance of each terrace by water that people will point out a high place that is moved up on the coast and moved down to the low land so the fields surrounding hills are water level and the same height, creating the beautiful rice terraces of the mountain. Mu Cang Chai rice terrace fields is an evidence y to the masterstroke of human hand – Hmong People in the renovation of nature, to create a unique beautiful landscape of North-Vietnam “Mu Cang Chai Rice Terrace Field”. In the recently years, Mu Cang Chai has been one of outstanding Vietnam Tours to visit an impressive place in the north of Vietnam, particularly the rice harvest coming at the beginning of the 1st - 10 October of the year when it is the best time to visit Mu Cang Chai.