Sapa District is located in Lao Cai Province, north-west Vietnam, and 350km's north-west of Hanoi, close to the border with China. The Hoang Lien Son range of mountains dominates the district, which is at the eastern extremity of the Himalayas. This range includes Vietnams' highest mountain, Fan si pan, at a height of 3142m above sea level. The town of Sapa lies at about 1600 meters of altitude. The climate is moderate and rainy in summer (May-August), and foggy and cold with occasional snowfalls in winter.
Sapa is a quiet mountain town and home to a great diversity of ethnic minority peoples. The total population of 36,000 consists mostly of minority groups. Excluding Kinh people (15%) there are mainly 5 ethnic groups in Sapa: Hmong 52%, Dao 25%, Tay 5%, Giay 2% and a small number of Xa Pho. Approximately 7,000 live in Sapa, the other 36,000 being scattered in small communes throughout the district.
Most of the ethnic minority people work their land on sloping terraces since the vast majority of the land is mountainous. Their staple foods are rice and corn. Rice, by its very nature of being a labor intensive crop, makes the daily fight for survival paramount. The unique climate in Sapa has a major influence on the ethnic minorities who live in the area. With sub-tropical summers, temperate winters and 160 days of mist annually, the influence on agricultural yields and health related issues are significant.
The minority people can only yield one crop of rice annually, which leads to food shortfalls in many communes at specific times. This shortage of food contributes to malnutrition and other related health problems. The climatic conditions also contribute to many health issues including coughs, colds, and bronchial and respiratory problems that are commonplace throughout the community.
The geographical location of the area makes it a truly unique place for many interesting plants and animals, allowing it to support many inhabitants. Many very rare or even endemic species have been recorded in the region.
The scenery of the Sapa region in large part reflects the relationship between the minority people and nature. This is seen especially in the paddy fields carpeting the rolling lower slopes of the Hoang Lien Mountains. The impressive physical landscape which underlies this has resulted from the work of the elements over thousands of years, wearing away the underlying rock. On a clear day, the imposing peak of Fan Si Pan comes into view. The last major peak in the Himalayan chain, Fan Si Pan offers a real challenge to even the keenest walker, the opportunity of staggering views, and a rare glimpse of some of the last remaining primary rain forest in Vietnam.
Geology, climate and human activity have combined to produce a range of very distinct habitats around Sapa. Especially important is Sapa’s geographic position, at the convergence of the worlds 14 “biomes” (distinct biographic areas), producing an assemblage of plant and animal species unique in the world.
The Hoang Lien Mountains are home to a rich variety of plants, birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and insects, many only found in northwestern Vietnam. For this reason, the Hoang Lien Nature Reserve was designated in 1986, covering much of the mountain range to the immediate south of Sapa.
Forest type and quality change with increasing altitude. At 2000 meters the natural, undisturbed forest begins to be seen. Above 2500 meters dwarf conifers and rhododendrons predominate in the harsh “elfin forest”, so called because a lack of topsoil and nutrients means that fully mature trees grow to measure only a few meters in height. Higher still, only the hardiest of plant species are found. At over 3000 meters, Fan Si Pan’s summit can only support dwarf bamboo.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Sapa.