HANG KIA

Hang Kia is a tourist site located on an altitude of 1,000m above sea level. It is cool in the summer; foggy in the winter. In spring, white plum blossoms, mixed with the color of peach blossoms, signal a coming upland festival season: Gau Tao Festival. Tourists can go from Hoa Binh city by Route 6 about 3 hours, or take a boat to explore Hoa Binh reservoir, Thac Bo temple, Go Lao waterfall, then continue travel by car for about an hour to the area where the Mong people reside.

Mai Chau has 7 ethnic groups living together including Muong, Thai, Mong, Dzao, Tay, and Hoa. Each ethnic group has a unique traditional culture that has created a variety of colors in the Northwest. Not only famous for its beautiful scenery, typical products, souvenirs, and enthusiastic friendliness, Mai Chau is also attractive for its rich culinary culture; especially, there are many potential points for tourism in Hang Kia commune, Pa Co, Noong Luong, primeval forests and old forests. For a long time, talking about tourism in Mai Chau and Hoa Binh, they often only mention about Van village, Lac village, Pom Coong, few people know that Hang Kia commune is also potential destinations for tourism with beautiful, wild nature and unique cultural features of the Mong ethnic people are kept almost intact.

From the center of Mai Chau district, traveling about 40km over the mountain about 1,200m above sea level, tourists will reach Hang Kia commune. Looking down from above, the view is the green color of mountains and forests, roofs of Mong people's houses in the smoke of fog. The landscape here always inspires photographers. From the small winding road with steep, narrow curves to tea hills, stone fences, and bright yellow canola flowers embrace the space in front of each porch. Going deep into the village, occasionally, Mong women were diligently embroidered and the children laughed mischievously. Even the piles of firewood piled up in the middle of the yard, the thin smoke rising from the roof of the kitchen is enough to make visitors leave the noisy worries behind their backs to enjoy the feeling of different peace.

Coming to Hang Kia, beside the road to explore the village, visitors can go to destinations that still have untouched, wild beauty such as tea hills, plum garden in Ta Xong A area, Ta Xo area, Thung A Lang, etc. Along the roads connecting hamlets and villages, you should not ignore the high points on the mountain which is an ideal place to "hunt clouds" such as the Heaven Gate, the Pa Khom area to Thung Mai or on the Sam Tha mountain that can see the peaks of Pu Luong (Thanh Hoa) and Pha Luong (Son La). Besides, attracting the desire to explore, the experience of visitors is also the cultural characteristics, traditional jobs very typical of the Mong people here such as brocade weaving, indigo dyeing, beeswax painting, etc. It is impossible not to mention the attractiveness of highland cuisine with many mountain-style products such as corn wine, horse meat soup, hand-pounded cakes, men men, vegetables, village chicken and pig, bamboo shoots.

In 2018, about 332,000 visitors came to Mai Chau, of which, the number of visitors to Hang Kia commune was six thousand, of which foreign tourists accounted for 60%. With two main seasons rainy and dry seasons, the average temperature of the year is 18.5°C, fresh, cool air, cool all year, beautiful nature, unique ethnic culture, Hang Kia contains a lot of potential for developing community-based tourism, attracting domestic and international tourists to explore and experience. These are also two priority destinations that Hoa Binh will build into a tourist destination.

Address: Hang Kia commune, Mai Chau district, Hoa Binh province