Ha Giang Loop: Ha Giang to Du Gia

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Ha Giang

   Ha Giang is where Vietnam runs out of country. The city lies on the Lô River in the far north, just a short ride from the Chinese border, and it is the gateway to one of the most dramatic road circuits in Southeast Asia. Beyond the last streets, the road lifts into the Dong Van Karst Plateau, a UNESCO Global Geopark since 2010, where limestone peaks and gorges crowd every horizon and terraces of corn and rice climb the hillsides.

   Read the complete Ha Giang write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ha Giang is where the day begins. Next is Quan Ba Heaven.

2. 2. Quan Ba Heaven Gate

   The Heaven Gate, Cổng Trời in Vietnamese, is the pass above Quản Bạ, where the road tops a ridge at about fifteen hundred metres and the whole Dong Van Karst Plateau opens beneath it. Below, a valley of green rice terraces and small fields is dotted with the humped outlines of limestone hills, and in the middle sits the pair of round green mounds known as Núi Đôi, the Twin Mountains, which local people call the Fairy's Bosom. On a clear morning, mist lies in the hollows and the hills float above it.

   Read the complete Quan Ba Heaven Gate write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Quan Ba Heaven comes up about 48 km into the recorded legs. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Dong Van, mostly downhill.

3. 3. Dong Van

   Dong Van is a small market town in the far north of Vietnam, close to the Chinese border, and it lies at the heart of a remarkable landscape of limestone. The Dong Van Karst Plateau, a UNESCO Global Geopark, is a high, rocky country of grey peaks, deep gorges and tiny terraced fields, where farmers grow maize and buckwheat in pockets of soil carried by hand and planted between the rocks. At around a thousand metres, the air is cool, mist hangs in the valleys, and the villages are built of stone, with walls and roofs of rough grey slabs.

   Read the complete Dong Van write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 144 km into the recorded legs you reach Dong Van. Next is Ma Pi Leng Pass.

4. 4. Ma Pi Leng Pass

   Mã Pí Lèng is the great pass of the Ha Giang Loop, a road cut along the side of a vast gorge on the way between Đồng Văn and Mèo Vạc, and it earns its reputation in the first minute. At about fifteen hundred metres, the road clings to a cliff hundreds of metres above the Nho Quế River, which winds through a sheer, green-black canyon far below, often described as one of the deepest in Southeast Asia. The sides drop away on one hand, the mountain climbs on the other, and the colour of the river, a clear jade turquoise on a good day, is unforgettable.

   Read the complete Ma Pi Leng Pass write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ma Pi Leng Pass, about halfway at 1500 m. Next is Meo Vac, mostly downhill.

5. 5. Meo Vac

   Meo Vac sits at the edge of the Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark, near the Chinese border in the far north of Vietnam, and it feels like the end of the map. The town is built on a ridge of grey limestone, among peaks that look like broken teeth, and the road in from the west is the famous Ma Pi Leng Pass, a narrow shelf cut into a cliff above a gorge so deep that the Nho Que River at the bottom is a thin green thread. The pass was part of the Happiness Road, built by thousands of volunteers and local Hmong people over some six years starting in 1959.

   Read the complete Meo Vac write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Meo Vac sits at 148 km, late in the day. Next is Du Gia.

6. 6. Du Gia

   Du Gia is a quiet valley village in the north of Ha Giang province, and it makes a gentle end to a ride that has spent days among limestone peaks. The mountains here soften into green hills, rice terraces step down the slopes, and the houses are wooden stilt homes with tiled roofs belonging to Tay, Dao and Hmong families. Smoke rises from kitchen fires in the early morning, and the air smells of woodsmoke, wet earth and ripening rice.

   Read the complete Du Gia write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 320 km.