Bac Ha Ethnic Market

Tinh Lao Cai Holiday Weather today


Date/time of update: March 19, 2024, 2:53 am, Timezone: GMT+7
Overcast Clouds

Temperature: 15.37°C
Temperature feels like: 15.39°C
Minimum Temperature: 15.37°C
Maximum Temperature: 15.37°C
Atmospheric pressure: 1021hPa
Humidity:93%
Visibility: 3801m
Wind speed: 1.71m/sec
Wind Direction: 55 degrees
Cloudiness: 89%
Sunrise: 2024-03-18 11:08:59
Sunset: 2024-03-19 11:14:32

Bac Ha is a district of Lao Cai Province, located on a plateau with average elevation above 930m above sea level. Bac Ha has a cool climate all year around and is inhabited by 14 different ethnic minorities such as the Kinh, Hmong, Tay, Nung, Dao, Phu La, Hoa... Many of the ethnic groups in Bac Ha have maintained a lifestyle unchanged for centuries.

Bac Ha Travel Guide, Tourist Attractions

1/ Bac Ha Sunday Market

Bac Ha is famous to the foreign travelers to Vietnam for the ethnic market which is on Sunday morning. The market offers exotic scenes of ethnic people in their colorful traditional costumes gathering around the town for trade and for meeting with friends.

Three Hmong ladies at Bac Ha Sunday Market
Three Hmong ladies at Bac Ha Sunday Market

Different corners of the market are for different types of goods ranging from horses, dogs, pigs to joss sticks, food, wine,... People talk to one another in a few languages. If you travel to Bac Ha on Sunday morning and take a look at the market from the nearby mountain slope, you'll be amazed at the collection of colors…

Bac Ha Sunday Market in Bac Ha, Lao Cai, Vietnam
Bac Ha Sunday Market in Bac Ha, Lao Cai, Vietnam

At the market, the women do the trade, the men normally sit somewhere with their buddies and drink wine. Many get drunk by noon and can only come home on horse back with the aid of his wife... Some young girls and boys come to the market to find or to meet with lover. The girls normally gather in groups well dressed standing at the entrances to the market. The boys pass by would try to tease and talk to the girl his heart seems to fall for.

A Hmong lady with jossticks for sales at the Bac Ha Sunday Market
A Hmong lady with jossticks for sales at the Bac Ha Sunday Market

2/ Coc Ly Market

The Coc Ly Market is by the Chay River, 18km west of Bac Ha Township. The market is on Tuesday morning. While Bac Ha Sunday Market is for the whole district, Coc Ly Tuesday Market is mostly for ethnic people in the Coc Ly Commune of Bac Ha District. The Coc Ly Market is more quiet and less visited compared to other markets in the region. The natural landscape by the market is spectacular.

Flower Hmong at the Coc Ly Market in Bac Ha District, Lao Cai Province
Flower Hmong at the Coc Ly Market in Bac Ha District, Lao Cai Province

3/ Former Residence of Hoang A Tuong

Hoang A Tuong Residence

Hoang A Tuong was once referred to as Hmong King in Bac Ha. He was from the ethnic Tay though. And he was the chieftain of the local ethnic groups. The residence has a nice architecture which somehow functioned as a defense structure. The residence is in Bac Ha Township and is a museum now.

Former 'Hmong King in Bac Ha' Residence
Former 'Hmong King in Bac Ha' Residence

4/ Ethnic Villages

Ban Pho VillageBac Ha is famous to the foreign travelers to Vietnam for the ethnic market which is on Sunday morning. The market offers exotic scenes of ethnic people in their colorful traditional costumes gathering around the town for trade and for meeting with friends.

There are several ethnic villages around the Township of Bac Ha which can be visited by car or on foot on hiking trips. The tours can take from a couple of hours to a few days. You can stay with ethnic families on trekking tours. Some villages on the outskirt of Bac Ha are Ban Pho, Cha Lo, …

Ban Pho Village in Bac Ha, Lao Cai Province
Ban Pho Village in Bac Ha, Lao Cai Province

4/ The Chay River

The Chay River is in Coc Ly, 18km west of Bac Ha Township. There are villages by the riverside, waterfalls,.. which make a boat trip for half a day worthwhile.

The Chay River at Coc Ly, Bac Ha with several lovely adventure boat trips
The Chay River at Coc Ly, Bac Ha with several lovely adventure boat trips

Adventure Travel, Trekking Tours, Hiking Trips

Apart from the town, tourists don't tend to travel to other areas of Bac Ha District. AdventureGreen organizes adventure tours such as trekking tours with homestay, mountain biking tours and motorbike tours in and around Bac Ha, between Bac Ha and Ha Giang. Besides, we also have moderate walking tours and sightseeing tours for travelers to get a glimpse of the local ethnic life around the town.

Captivating mountains on our hiking trips in the Bac Ha Plateau
Captivating mountains on our hiking trips in the Bac Ha Plateau

Our adventure tours follow routes not often traveled by other tourists. The natural landscapes in Bac Ha are fresh and captivating, the local culture is authentic, the boys and girls here are curious about foreigners visiting their community.

1/ Trekking Tours, Hiking Trips

AdventureGreen offers hard trekking adventure tours and moderate hiking trips around Bac Ha. The duration of a tour ranges from 1 day, 2 days or 3 days. The landscape of the Bac Ha Plateau is pristine with mountains, rivers, lakes and ethnic villages.

Scenic Bac Ha Plateau on our trekking tours
Scenic Bac Ha Plateau on our trekking tours

2/ Easy Walking Tours

If you do not want to take the hard treks at Bac Ha, then AdventureGreen offers easy walking tours to visit the Bac Ha Sunday Market, Coc Ly Tuesday Market and different ethnic villages around Bac Ha Town and along the Chay River. You can take these trips of half a day, a full day or a few days. If you do not want to stay at the villages, then we’ll stay overnight in Bac Ha Town and day-trip to the tourist attractions nearby by car.

Easy tours at Bac Ha can bring you to sites of breathtaking beauty
Easy tours at Bac Ha can bring you to sites of breathtaking beauty

3/ Adventure Boat Tours

The boat tour on the Chay River takes 2-3 hours which includes a walking tour to the Tay Village of Trung Do. On the boat trip, we’ll make our way amid imposing mountains on the riversides with some scenic waterfalls.

The scenic riversides on the boat tour on the Chay River at Coc Ly, Bac Ha
The scenic riversides on the boat tour on the Chay River at Coc Ly, Bac Ha

How to Get There

By road

Bac Ha is 70km southeast of Lao Cai City, 110km northeast of Sapa via Route 4D and the provincial road DT153. The roads are in good conditions.

Route 70 connects Lao Cai, Bac Ha and Yen Bai
Route 70 connects Lao Cai, Bac Ha and Yen Bai

By train

There are nightly trains between Lao Cai and Hanoi which stop at Pho Lu Train Station where you can get on/off for your trip from/to Bac Ha. Pho Lu Train Station is 43km northeast of Bac Ha Township. There soft seats and soft sleeper carriages with air-conditioning on the train.

Pho Lu Train Station where we can travel to and from Bac Ha by train
Pho Lu Train Station where we can travel to and from Bac Ha by train

Lao Cai Average Monthly Rainfalls and Temperatures


Vietnam Adventure Travel