Sapa is a small, mountain town in Lao Cai Province. It is located about 350 km northwest of Hanoi, close to the Chinese border. Here's where you'll find the Hoang Lien Son range of mountains, which includes Fan Si Pan—the country's highest peak.

This quiet Vietnamese town is home to different ethnic tribal groups. There are five main ethnic groups in Sapa: the Hmong, Dao, Tay, Giay and Xa Pho. It is said that Sapa was first occupied by the first four groups, since the Vietnamese from the lowlands (better known as the Kinh) did not colonise the highest valleys.

The Ban Gioc waterfall is the largest and most beautiful waterfall in Vietnam, located in the northeastern province of Cao Bang. The water disturbs down 3 levels and is 30 meters high and 300 meters wide. This makes Ban Gioc Waterfall also the widest waterfall in Vietnam.

The water from the waterfall comes from the Quay Son river. This beautiful jade-blue river flows from China through a fantastic landscape of rice fields and limestone rocks. The Ban Gioc Waterfall is still not a major tourist hot spot, despite the popularity on social media and good road access. Mass tourism is yet to come and besides on weekend and on public holidays, there are not many foreign and local tourist.

Ba Be was given the designation of National Park in 1992 in an effort to protect this stunning area of rich biodiversity and unique landscapes. As well as this, it also features as an ASEAN Heritage Park. The park itself stretches over 10,048 ha and has many different ecosystems within its borders.

The ground and surrounding mountains are made up mainly of limestone karst which is characteristic of the north of Vietnam, and the forests consist of mostly evergreen vegetation with bamboo growing closer to banks of the lake.

In the heart of the park is Ba Be Lake which is the largest and highest natural freshwater lake in Vietnam. The lake is made up of three smaller lakes and surrounded by limestones karsts some of which open up into magnificent caves. The park also features many caves which have formed over years of erosion some, some of which have only been discovered recently.