Sa Pa winter festival 2017 will be organised in Sa Pa town, the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai from December 23 with myriads of splendid activities.

A corner of Sa Pa town.

The festival, which is one of the most famous cultural-tourism events in winter in Vietnam, is held in the framework of the 2017 National Tourism Year.

According to Tran Manh Hao, Vice Chairman of Sa Pa district People’s Committee, the festival will offer domestic and foreign visitors a chance to experience cultural and entertainment activities related to the culture of local ethnic minorities like performance of traditional music instruments, folk games and local delicacies.

Particularly, there will be an artificial snow space in an area of nearly 10,000 square metres with a slew of impressive check-in points. Sa Pa is one of the few places in Vietnam where snow will sometimes fall. 

The town is making preparation for a street festival which will feature parades, ethnic costume shows, dragon and lion dances in major streets on the night of December 31.

This is the second year the event has been held. Last year, the festival drew the participation of more than 20,000 visitors.

Located 350km northwest of Hanoi capital city, Sa Pa is 1,600m high above sea level, with the average temperature of 15-18°C. The whole town is dominated by the Hoang Lien Son mountain range which is famous with the Indochina’s highest mountain of Fansipan at a height of 3,142 m above sea level. 

Discovered in 1903 by the French, Sa Pa has many natural scenic sites such as Ham Rong Mountain, Thac Bac (Silver Waterfall), Cau May (Rattan Bridge), Bamboo Forest and Ta Phin Cave. The hill town is home to six main ethnic minority groups, including Kinh, Hmong, Dao, Tay, Day and Xa Pho with various traditional festivals and unique cultural practices, especially the Bac Ha market and Sa Pa love market.-VNA