Mau Son is located 30 km northeast of Lang Son city. It is a high mountain area in the province with diverse terrain, consisting of a complex of 80 large and small mountains. This region also experiences relatively low temperatures, with snow covering the landscape in winter. Join us at RuudNguyen.com to explore this land.
About Mau Son
Therefore, Mau Son has become an ideal destination for backpackers and those who love snow. With an altitude of over 1,500 meters above sea level, Mau Son is known as the land of wind and fog. Especially in winter, if you’re lucky, you can witness the pristine snowflakes adorning the old French villas, clustering on tree branches, grass, covering houses and pathways…
The Mau Son mountain area is located in the northeast of Lang Son province, within the territories of two communes: Cong Son in Cao Loc district, and Mau Son in Loc Binh district. The average height of Mau Son’s peaks ranges from 800 – 1,000 meters above sea level, comprising a complex of 80 large and small mountains.
The highest peak is Phia Po at 1,541 meters, also known as Father Mountain; followed by Phia Me peak at 1,520 meters, also known as Mother Mountain. Additionally, the area’s dense network of rivers and streams creates favorable conditions for the development of the ecosystem.
Mau Son enjoys a cool climate year-round (Collected Photo)
The Mau Son mountain tourist area spans over 10,740 hectares, including 5,380 hectares of forestry land and 1,543 hectares of primary forest. Common vegetation includes tea and bamboo families, with the truc sat bamboo thriving exceptionally well.
The main ethnic communities living near the afforested areas are the Dao, Tay, and Nung. Traditional slash-and-burn agriculture is almost non-existent, replaced by investment in capital and scientific techniques for efficient cultivation of the existing farmland.
When is the Best Time to Backpack in Mau Son?
When should you backpack in Mau Son? The Mau Son mountain area experiences two distinct seasons. Winter runs from November to March, with average temperatures of 7-13 degrees Celsius. Summer, from April to October, often brings heavy rainfall, with average temperatures around 16-17 degrees Celsius. During winter, Mau Son sometimes experiences temperatures below 0 degrees and snowfall, which has recently become a major attraction for tourists visiting Mau Son in winter.
The best time to visit Mau Son is during the summer, around September. The weather in Mau Son is always cool, ideal for a relaxing trip with friends or family.
For those who enjoy the cold of winter or are simply curious about snow, choose around January each year, and keep an eye on the weather forecast to see when the cold air arrives.
Means of Transportation for Backpacking in Mau Son
Bus
You can take a bus from My Dinh station to Lang Son. Upon arriving in Lang Son City, you can rent a motorcycle to go to Mau Son. According to those experienced in backpacking to Mau Son, to avoid potential risks during the journey, it’s advisable to travel in a group.
Motorcycle or Private Car
The road to Mau Son is quite narrow and winding (Collected Photo)
Starting from Hanoi, the journey to Mau Son is only 200km if you take National Highway 1A. The route is quite scenic, making the drive convenient. It takes about 4-5 hours to reach Lang Son City. Here, you can visit many attractive Lang Son tourist spots. Then, you can head to Mau Son if you want to see snow in the winter.
Hotels and Guesthouses in Mau Son
There are quite a few guesthouses in Mau Son, located in scenic spots, fully equipped with amenities, and reasonably priced, ranging from 120,000 to 200,000 VND for a double room. You should choose hotels in the city, avoiding those too close to the border (less convenient and not safe).
What to Eat When Traveling to Mau Son
In addition to the cool climate and beautiful scenery, Mau Son is also known for its various mountainous specialties.
Mau Son wine, made with forest leaf yeast, includes over 30 types of rare herbs like “Dây Nước”, “Trầu Rừng”, “Dây Ngọt”, etc. Mau Son peaches are famous for their unique, unmatched flavor. The peaches are greenish-white, sweet and crunchy, with a red flesh and a distinct, gentle aroma.
Tuyet Son tea from the Mau Son tourist area is famous not only for its freshness but also for the unique way the tea buds grow on ancient tea trees hundreds of years old, hidden in the mist throughout the year. Additionally, there are six-spurred chickens, roasted pork, wild lemons, bamboo shoots, Mac Mat turned milk, grilled six-spurred chicken, fragrant frogs, heavenly peaches…
Roasted Suckling Pig
This dish is an indispensable specialty at tables in Lang Son, not only delicious but also elaborately prepared, capturing the unique flavor of Lang Son. Lang Son’s whole roasted pig is a culinary highlight.
Coloring the pig is one of the most important steps in making this dish visually appealing. To achieve the blistered skin, the chef uses a long needle, continuously turning and pricking the skin while applying honey, roasting evenly until the pig turns a rich, golden brown color.
Roasted Pork is one of the delicacies in Lang Son (Collected Photo)
In the past, the Tay people traditionally roasted pigs directly over a charcoal fire from mountain wood, taking about 2-3 hours. Nowadays, the community has improved this process with automated roasting ovens that are much faster, meeting the business needs of the locals. The quality of each roasted pig depends on the skill of the chef and the roasting secrets of each family.
Previously, the Tay would roast pigs directly over a charcoal fire from mountain wood for about 2-3 hours. Now, they use automated roasting ovens, significantly speeding up the process to meet business demands. However, even with more advanced roasting methods, the flavor and color of Lang Son’s roasted pork still retain their distinctive characteristics with very simple ingredients.
Honey Grilled Chicken
This is a delicious and rustic specialty of Mau Son. The selected chicken is the six-spurred breed, raised by letting them roam freely in the village, resulting in firmer and more flavorful meat than the chickens raised in lower regions.
Mau Son Honey Grilled Chicken (Collected Photo)
Preparation method: The chicken is thoroughly washed and then marinated with a variety of spices following each restaurant’s traditional method that brings out the distinctive flavor of Mau Son.
The whole chicken is then grilled over charcoal, with an additional brushing of wild honey to enhance the flavor and give the skin an attractive appearance. Enjoying this grilled chicken with sticky rice and sipping some Mau Son wine in the cool weather is a delightful experience many people cherish.
Fragrant Frog
Visitors to Lang Son often hear stories about the “royal tribute” delicacy, the precious fragrant frog indigenous to the Mau Son mountain forests. These frogs are commonly referred to by tourists as “wealthy frog,” “king frog,” or “princess frog.” However, the local Red Dao people traditionally call it “Tong Keng,” which means “big frog” in their ethnic language.
Mau Son Fragrant Frog (Collected Photo)
At a feast in Mau Son, when a plate of crispy fried fragrant frogs is served, other delicacies like salmon, six-spurred chicken, or smoked meat are often set aside to give pride of place to the frog dish. This is because the forest fragrant frog is considered the “king” of Mau Son’s cuisine.
Mau Son Salmon
Many seafood experts have noted that Mau Son offers ideal climatic and water conditions for breeding salmon and sturgeon. Moreover, the quality of salmon raised in Mau Son is high, with a rich nutritional content, flavorful and beautifully colored meat, comparable to any imported salmon currently consumed in Vietnam.
Due to its cold climate, Mau Son is quite suitable for salmon farming (Collected Photo)
However, after several attempts and technical improvements, the people of Mau Son have successfully farmed salmon. The successful experimentation in salmon farming not only brings a high-end European culinary delight to meet the demands of tourists but also creates a new attraction in Mau Son.
Mau Son Wine
Mau Son wine is famous for its delicious, crystal-clear quality, similar to spring water. It is smooth to drink, rich in flavor, and neither too spicy nor too bland. It has a distinctive, gentle aroma from the leaves and roots of mountain herbs in Lang Son, creating an unforgettable taste experience for anyone who tries it.
A Product of Mau Son Tourism (Collected Photo)
It is the Dao ethnic people living at the summit of Mau Son (Loc Binh-Lang Son) who traditionally distill at an altitude of 800-1000 meters above sea level, a method passed down from generation to generation.
Wild Honey
Pure wild honey harvested from the peaks of Mau Son has a unique flavor of various wildflowers. It has numerous medicinal and health benefits. Harvested using traditional methods, it retains its natural aroma and sweetness, and is completely pure. This honey has a clear brown color, offering a refreshing sweetness – a distinctive taste of the mountains and forests of Mau Son.
If you’re lucky, you might find authentic honey in Mau Son (Collected Photo)
Mau Son Mugwort
A miraculous herb of the high mountains, refusing to grow below 600 meters above sea level. This naturally clean medicinal herb has a unique flavor and can help with colds, improve digestion, and alleviate headaches. Utilizing traditional preparation methods, it can be transformed into various food and medicinal remedies.
Mugwort has many uses in daily life (Collected Photo)
Growing anywhere there is soil, mixed with other wild plants, a unique aspect of Mau Son mugwort is its distinct sweet taste that lingers on the tongue after eating. You can use mugwort leaves to diversify your meals, such as mugwort noodles for breakfast, mugwort soup, or a simple dish like mugwort egg. You can also ask hotel staff to teach you how to make mugwort cakes of the Tay and Dao ethnic groups, or take some home as a unique travel gift for family and friends.
Mau Son Peaches
Long famous throughout the country, not only for their color but also for their unique flavor. Unlike other peach varieties that are brightly red and fragrant when ripe but have soft, mushy flesh, Mau Son peaches, dried in the sun and wind, seem sweeter, crisper, and firmer.
They have a pale green exterior, but the flesh is sweet and crunchy, with a red blush and a mild aroma. It’s this natural fragrance and sweet taste that captivate many visitors, making them buy these peaches as gifts after just one visit to Mau Son.
Mau Son Peaches bear fruit only once a year in summer (Collected Photo)
Each year, Mau Son has just one peach season, lasting only a month. Therefore, these peaches become a precious commodity generously bestowed by nature on this land. The peaches here are delicious and unrivaled in fame.
Mau Son peaches are both large and sweet. They have a greenish-white color, with a soft, velvety, fuzzy outer skin. Each fruit has a seed at its core, surrounded by yellowish or whitish flesh. The outward appearance of Mau Son peaches, plump with a vibrant, fresh pink hue, tempts everyone to taste them.
Mau Son Wild Lemons
Unlike other types of lemons, these are quite small, only slightly larger than a kumquat. When ripe, the lemon skin is a beautiful yellow. Eating the whole fruit, including the skin, gives a sweet, nutty, and very fragrant taste.
If you eat only the pulp, it’s slightly sour. The small white wild lemon flowers bloom in the crevices of branches, growing from the base to the very top of the tree. Each lemon typically contains 3 to 5 small seeds, very few in number.
Mau Son Wild Lemons (Collected Photo)
This variety of lemon only grows in the Mau Son mountain area, Lang Son, thriving at altitudes ranging from 800 to 1541 meters above sea level. The average temperature here falls between 15 to 22 degrees Celsius, which is highly conducive to the growth and development of the lemon trees.
Where to Go When Visiting Mau Son
Although Mau Son is just a small commune near the border with China, it has several interesting destinations that should not be missed when backpacking in Mau Son. Most of these places are not too far away, so you can easily visit them in a day.
Some Villages of the Dao People
The Dao people of Mau Son have preserved many unique aspects of their culture (Collected Photo)
The peak of Mau Son still embodies the pure and diverse cultural identity of its ethnic communities, including the Dao, Tay, and Nung peoples, with the Dao making up 98% of the population. Khuoi Cap village is a longstanding settlement of the Dao community. The livelihood of the people here heavily depends on agriculture, animal husbandry, and farming.
In Khuoi Cap village, unique cultural aspects, customs, and practices are still preserved intact, unblended in their eating habits, lifestyle, attire, worship customs, festivals, etc. Therefore, Khuoi Cap village has become an extremely attractive destination for community-based cultural tourism.
Long Dau Stream
Long Dau Stream is one of the scenic and ecotourism spots of Lang Son province, known for its gentle beauty with crystal clear waters. Long Dau Stream is a fairly large stream, about 10km long, flowing through the territories of Mau Son and Yen Khoai communes in Loc Binh district.
Long Dau Stream (Collected Photo)
Long Dau Stream originates from the Mau Son mountain range, which rises over 1000 meters above sea level, and flows north to south. The stream’s narrow and steep path creates many rapids and cascades.
In its upper reaches, there are large waterfalls over 3 meters high, 7 – 15 meters wide, and 2 – 3 meters deep. During the rainy season, the water flow increases significantly, and the stream can expand 2-3 times its normal width, creating magnificent and powerful waterfalls.
Ancient Mau Son Sanctuary
At an altitude of 1,190 meters above sea level, the Ancient Mau Son Sanctuary is a place for worshipping the mountain deity of Mau Son, known as “Duc Ton Than Cong Tinh Quang Mau, Hung Tran Dai Vuong, Thuong Dang Phuc Than,” revered by the ancient Tay people.
Ancient Sanctuary (Collected Photo)
The path to the Ancient Mau Son Sanctuary is a trail, and reaching this site requires a considerable amount of walking. This location often attracts archaeologists and pilgrims seeking to explore the ancient sanctuary, situated on the steep slopes of the Mau Son mountain range, within the territory of Lap Pia village, Mau Son commune. The temple was built to worship the mountain deity of Mau Son, known as “Duc Ton Than Cong Tinh Quang Mau, Hung Tran Dai Vuong, Thuong Dang Phuc Than.”
Phat Chi Mountain
Phat Chi Mountain (locally known as Phat Chi) is part of Khuoi Tang and Khuoi Cap villages in Mau Son commune, Loc Binh district, Lang Son province. From Lang Son city, follow National Highway 4B (Lang Son – Tien Yen) to Km14, then turn left onto road 237A towards Mau Son Tourist Area. At Km12, turn right onto a trail through over 2 km of primary forest to reach Phat Chi Mountain.
Phat Chi Mountain (Collected Photo)
The Phat Chi Mountain site is one of the three largest and highest natural limestone mountains in the southwestern part of the Mau Son Tourist Area. The entire Phat Chi Mountain area and its grassland cover a total area of over 10 hectares.
This mountainous region has a natural gentle slope from north to south (this area has few trees, mainly consisting of large grasslands). Additionally, there are many other large and small mountains surrounding it, with an average height of about ± 1,000 meters above sea level (about 100 meters lower than the Mau Son Tourist Area).
However, what interests people most about Phat Chi Mountain is its sacredness and the numerous mystical stories of the Dao people in Mau Son, which have been orally transmitted, written in books, and included in poems during family and ancestral ceremonies.
Suggested Itinerary for Visiting Mau Son
Since Mau Son is not too far away, you can take a short backpacking trip there in just 2 days. Additionally, you can refer to the article “Backpacking Experience in Lang Son” to combine it into a longer itinerary.
On the Way to Mau Son (Collected Photo)
Day 1: Ride a motorcycle from Hanoi to Lang Son to Mau Son, about 200 km via National Highway 1. The road to Lang Son is quite scenic, making the journey relatively quick. If you start in the morning, you can visit some tourist spots in Lang Son first. Arriving in Mau Son in the evening, check into a hotel, stroll around the mountain peak for photos, and maybe buy some wood for a campfire and social activities. If you take a bus from Hanoi to Lang Son, upon arrival, you can hire a taxi to go directly to Mau Son; remember to negotiate the fare with the driver.
Day 2: Explore around Mau Son, you can go trekking or use a motorcycle to visit some Dao villages on the way down the mountain like Khuoi Cap, Khuoi Tang, wander around Long Dau Stream, visit Phat Chi Mountain, and the Ancient Mau Son Sanctuary. Most of these places can be visited within one day, then descend the mountain and return to Hanoi in the evening.
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