O Quy Ho is a mountain pass connecting two northern provinces of Lao Cai and Lai Chau, an area home to the magnificent Hoang Lien Range including the Indochina’s roof of Mount Fansipan with the height of 3,414 meters. It is also known as Hoang Lien Pass, but travelers having a strong love for the Northwest region prefer using the name O Quy Ho.

Xe om or motorbike taxi drivers often tell a story of a bird whose tormented song that sounds like ‘o quy ho’ is attached to an inconclusive love affair. Step by step, the bird’s voice O Quy Ho was used as the name for the wild mountain pass that is 2,000 meters above the sea level.

The pass is nearly 50 kilometers long encompassing two thirds of Lai Chau’s Tam Duong District, and one third of Lao Cai’s Sapa District. Tourists will have to cover a few kilometers from Hoang Lien National Park gate to come to the top of O Quy Ho Mountain considered the border between Lao Cal and Lai Chau.

Tourists will also have opportunities to enjoy imposing and impressive scenes of mountains and forests on the top of the Hoang Lien Mountain Range or even a view of mountains going up and down like fingers of a hand, and the Fansipan Peak of course.

In addition, the weather is one of the interesting features of the Northwest nature. In winter, if it is warm at a side of Tam Duong, it is foggy and cloudy at the side of Sapa. On the contrary, in summer, if the side of Sapa has cool weather, it is sunny and dry at the side of Tam Duong.

In general, O Quy Ho in the afternoon always brings peace to tourists. Regardless of the beginning place, Binh Lu or Sapa, tourists themselves are taking part in a seesaw with the sun and enjoying colorful sunset behind the mountains on the horizon.

How to take a sunset photo in O Quy Ho Mountain Pass
Nguyen Thanh Van