For a long time, when mentioning an heaven gate, people often think of Ha Giang, where has the Quan Ba sun gate. But few people know that, there is also a Gate of heaven in Sapa. This is the highest peak of Vietnam road, and we can go to admire Fansipan peak – rooftops of Indochina.
Coming out of Sapa town, going to the north about 18 km, road to Heaven gate is sinuous and rocky. This pass road is named Tram Ton, is weaving between the majestic Hoang Lien Son mountain. And Gate of heaven is the apex of this pass.
We arrived Gate of heaven at 11 in a date of July. This time, frost had melted, sky was sunny. But the sun did not cause irritation to the skin or made us want to escape. Sunny only helped us warmer and perceive the beauty of the mountains,clouds. All the year round, climate here and in mountain town of Sapa is cool. The average temperature is only 15oC to 18OC. Easy to understand why in summer, when heatwaves is continuous up to 35 degrees Celsius, both Southerners and Northerners, foreigners or domestic visitors are eager to come to Sapa.
Standing between Sapa heaven gate, we can see a vast valley below with the green rice fields, car road crossing Phong Tho (Lai Chau) – Sapa (Lao Cai). The far side is Thac Bac (Silver waterfall) – one of the 10 most beautiful waterfalls in Lao Cai. Also in this place, we can feel the glorious of Fansipan peak. Below are the the deep chasms with primeval forest contains many mysteries still has not been explored. This is also where has a meteorological station and Nguyen Thanh Long writer composed his famous short story “Quietly Sa Pa”.
Sapa heaven gate not only famous for its beautiful scenery, but also it is unspoiled, peaceful and quiet. The terraced fields in here have been voted “one of the seven most beautiful terraced rice fields in Asia and the world” by the magazine of the US Travel and Leisure. These beauties are also inadvertently created by the identity totality of ethnic groups: The H’mong, Dao Do, Tay, Giay, Xa Pho …
The food with bold flavors forest mountain such as “com lam”, “thang co”, “men men”,wild boars… explore the idyllic life of the upland ethnic. That makes us touched when leaving this place…