If Ha Giang could keep only one stretch of road, it would be this one.
The Happiness Road
Before 1959, Dong Van and Meo Vac were all but cut off from the rest of the country. Reaching them meant days on foot along mountain paths. Salt, oil and cloth came up on people’s backs and on horses.
The road linking Ha Giang town to Dong Van and on to Meo Vac was built over six years, from 1959 to 1965. Tens of thousands of young volunteers came from provinces across the north, breaking rock with hand hammers, chisels and explosives, carrying away the spoil in baskets. They gave it a very plain name: the Happiness Road.
The hardest section was Ma Pi Leng. That stretch alone took eleven months, and for much of it the workers hung on ropes against a vertical rock face, cutting a centimetre at a time. Where they hung then is where you park your bike for a photograph now.
We always tell this story before a group rides the pass. It does not make the view better, but it changes what you are looking at.
The Ma Pi Leng pass
About 20 km long, topping out at around 1,200 m, linking Dong Van with Meo Vac. On 16 November 2009 the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism listed the area as a national scenic landmark.
The name is usually understood in H’Mong as “the bridge of the horse’s nose” — so steep that even a horse loses its breath. The surface is good today, but the shape of the thing has not changed: rock wall on one side, a long drop to the Nho Que river on the other, and bends where you see nothing of what comes next until you are already in them.
The Nho Que river and the Tu San gorge
The Nho Que crosses from China into Vietnam at Seo Lung hamlet, Lung Cu commune, Dong Van district, cuts through the Tu San gorge, and then runs along the foot of Ma Pi Leng.
Seen from the pass, the river is a narrow jade-green line between rock walls hundreds of metres high. That colour is not a filter — it is what the water does over limestone, and it is deepest in the dry season, roughly October to April.
Taking a boat into the Tu San gorge is a completely different experience from standing above it. Down there the walls close in on both sides, the sound of the engine rings and then dies away, and you understand why people call it one of the most memorable gorges in Southeast Asia.
How to ride this section properly
- Do not hurry. Ridden straight through, these 20 km take less than an hour. We usually give it half a day, because the best of it is in the stops, not in getting to the far end.
- The walkway along the white cliff leaves the main road and leads to a spur looking straight down into the gorge. On foot — do not ride out onto it.
- Fog can come down in ten minutes and cut visibility to a few metres. If it does, stop somewhere wide and wait; do not push on.
- Lorries and coaches still use this road. Hold the inside line on blind bends.
- The jetty for the Tu San boats is at the foot of the pass, down a steep narrow track. Depending on the bikes and on the group, we sometimes leave the machines above and go down another way.
When it is at its best
October to April: clear skies, the river at its greenest, little rain. July and August are the wet season, with frequent landslides on this very stretch — which is also why we run almost no plateau tours in those two months.
Early in the morning cloud often sits in the bottom of the gorge and burns off as the sun comes up. If you sleep in Dong Van or Meo Vac the night before, you have a chance of seeing it.