Sapa 3 days/2 nights
Hanoi-Sapa by Limousine Van
Sapa-Tavan village-trekking, overnight in Homestay (5km-10km)
Tavan village-Giang Ta Chai-Sapa, overnight in Sapa hotel( trekking 5km-10km)
Sapa-Hanoi by limousine Van
Hanoi-Sapa by Limousine Van
Sapa-Tavan village-trekking, overnight in Homestay (5km-10km)
Tavan village-Giang Ta Chai-Sapa, overnight in Sapa hotel( trekking 5km-10km)
Sapa-Hanoi by limousine Van
Sa Pa is a frontier township and capital of Sa Pa District in Lào Cai Province in north-west Vietnam. It was first inhabited by people about whom nothing is known. They left in the entire valley hundreds of petroglyphs, mostly composed of lines, which experts think date from the 15th century and represent local cadastres. Then came the highland minorities of the Hmong and Yao. The township is one of the main market ones in the area, where several ethnic minority groups such as Hmong, Dao (Yao), Giáy, Pho Lu, and Tày live. These are the four main minority groups still present in Sa Pa district today. The Kinh (lowland Vietnamese) never originally colonised this highest of Việt Nam’s valleys, which lies in the shadow of Phan-Xi-Pǎng (Fansipan, 3143 m), the highest peak in the country.[1] Sa Pa is also home to more than 200 pieces of boulders with ancient engravings. The "Area of Old Carved Stone in Sapa" has been in the UNESCO tentative list since 1997.[2]
It was only when the French debarked in highland Tonkin in the late 1880s that Sa Pa, name of the Hmong hamlet, with "S" is pronounced almost as hard as "Ch" in French, "Sh" in English, "S" in standard Vietnamese, so Chapa as the French called it, began to appear on the national map. Near to the now Sa Pa townlet is "Sa Pả commune", which shows the origin in Hmong language of the location name.[a]
In the following decade, the future site of Sa Pa township started to see military parties as well as missionaries from the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP) visit.[4] The French military marched from the Red River Delta into the northern mountainous regions as part of Tonkin's ‘pacification’. In 1894-96 the border between China and Tonkin was formally agreed upon and the Sa Pa area, just to the south of this frontier, was placed under French authority. From 1891 the entire Lào Cai region, including Sa Pa, came under direct colonial military administration so as to curtail banditry and political resistance on the sensitive northern frontier.[5]
