The third Buckwheat Flower Festival will take place from October 4 to December 31 in four districts of northern mountainous Ha Giang province - Dong Van, Quan Ba, Yen Minh and Meo Vac - and the provincial capital of Ha Giang city.

The festival is in honor of the unique cultural values of the Dong Van Karst Plateau and aims to promote the province’s tourism attractions, including its magnificent landscapes of karst mountains, and develop buckwheat flowers, a tiny wild pink flower with triangular-shaped leaves, which bloom in the area from October to November, into a tourism brand of the province.

There will be a host of activities held, such as an international geological park fair, a fair on local agricultural products, a seminar on technological application and management solutions to improve the local honey industry, a music concert, a gastronomy program with special local beefsteak, paragliding over karst mountain ranges and buckwheat flowers, and traditional arts performances and folk games of ethnic minority groups.

The opening ceremony is to take place at 8pm on October 27 and will be broadcast live on Vietnam Television. 

Ha Giang province has a population of 800,000, 90 per cent of whom are ethnic minority people, with their own cultures and lifestyles. The most beautiful site in the province is the Dong Van Karst Global Geopark, designated by UNESCO as one of 77 sites with important geological and cultural heritage values. 

The geo-park is littered with ethereal karst formations that are nearly 400 million years old and has two protected areas.

Another famous destination in Ha Giang is Nho Que River, which cuts through the legendary Ma Pi Leng mountain pass, and other spectacular mountain passes with twisting roads that will test the hearts of even the most adventurous of travelers.

Ha Giang is visited much less than other popular northern destinations such as Sapa and Ha Long Bay, but it becomes much livelier during October and November, when visitors come to see its blooming flower fields, including buckwheat and daisies.

Tourism is expected to be a key sector for socioeconomic development by 2020 and by 2030 Ha Giang is to be an important tourism destination in Vietnam.

VN Economic Times