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CORONAVIRUS
STORE TEMPORARILY CLOSED

Lao Cai is just a narrow river away from Hekou, China. When China invaded Vietnam in 1979, Lao Cai was completely abandoned, and it stayed empty for 12 years, thanks to sporadic skirmishes along the border after the major fighting was over. Plus, all the landmines laid down by both sides had to be cleared.

When I was in Lao Cai in 1995, it was still a sleepy town, though with a daily influx of Chinese tourists, and Vietnamese were also busy crossing into Yunnan. The border bridge was filled with people.

Lao Cai is now a thriving border town, with lots of restaurants and hotels, all catering primarily to Chinese. Whites stay in Sapa. With the coronavirus, however, the border is closed, so Lao Cai's businesses are mostly empty. Should this crisis continue for a while, many people here will go bankrupt.



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