Dong Van plateau was recognized by the UNESCO as one of the 77 geological parks in the world and the second in Southeast Asia after the Langkawi Geological Park in Malaysia on October 3,2010. Dong Van has now become Vietnam’s first geological park.

The total area covers 2,530 square kilometers spreading over the four districts Quan Ba, Yen Minh, Dong Van, Meo Vac, Dong Van Plateau gathers the wonderful and various natural landscapes which have abundant scientific values and contain the unique cultural features of ethnic communities in Vietnam.

That are the leveled surfaces, river-perrons, deltas corroding mountains, mysterious caves at different levels, numerous of large river-valleys, the deep canyons, the forests of stones, rocky deserts, and limestone-mountains of running conical-shaped, departed conical-shaped or pyramid-shaped which are gigantic on the top of Ma Pi Leng peak; the particularly interesting forests and gardens of stones in the area of KhauVai love-market ...

Especially, there is the Nho Que alley formed by the Fault of the crust, in over a kilometer deep with steep limestone-cliffs of 700m high, is rare in the world.

The Advisory Council of Global Network of Geological Parks of the UNESCO (GGN) meeting in Lesvos - Greece, on 03/10/2010, officially recognized Plateau Geological Park in Dong Van Stone as a member of the Global Network of Geological Parks. The profile of Dong Van Rocky Plateau is internationally highly evaluated, which is completed with data on mineral geology and environmental resources.

Particularly, experts from UNESCO highly evaluate the cultural identity of ethnic groups living in Dong Van rocky Plateau. This is a very large feature of Dong Van rocky Plateau’s geological park in the system of global geological parks.This area is inhabited by about 250,000 people from 17 different ethnic minority groups in Vietnam. Every ethnic group has their own traditional cultural identities which are very unique from the name, dress, residence, language, customs, traditions and beliefs ...

Besides the typical community festivals, there is a precious heritage of folk art, from the oral poetries, folk songs, tales and proverbs to folk songs which are not only plentiful and varied with the full-of-characteristic representation of several ethnic groups but also reach the pinnacle of art such as the dance of the Lolo, the folk songs of the Mong, Dao, PuPeo, Tay, Nung ...  Moreover, there are some ethnic groups who live in Ha Giang only such as PuPeo, Co Lao, La Chi, Bo Y ... those ethnic groups that brings Ha Giang a cultural  countenance which is both diverse and distinctive, and can hardly confuse with any other regions.

Source: vietguider.com/