Yen Bai receives certificate recognising the Mu Cang Chai terraced fields as a special national site

The Yen Bai provincial People’s Committee held a ceremony on December 31 to receive certificates recognising the terraced rice fields in Mu Cang Chai District as a special national site as well as the new rice celebration of the H’mong ethnic people in the district as a national intangible cultural heritage.

At the ceremony (Photo: VNA)
At the ceremony (Photo: VNA)

The terraced fields were listed as a special national site following the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 1954/QD-TTg, dated December 31, 2019. The fields cover an area of about 7,000 hectares in all 14 communes and towns in the district.

The fields have won praise of many travel magazines, TV channels, and tourism websites at home and abroad as they were named in the lists of the 12 most beautiful terraced fields in the world by famous British newspaper the Telegraph in 2018, the world’s top 20 colourful places by New York-based magazine Conde Nast Traveller in 2019, and the 50 most beautiful places in the world in 2020 by global travel site Big 7 Travel.

Meanwhile, ‘le mung com moi’ (new rice celebration), a festival held in the tenth lunar month every year among the H’mong ethnic minority group in Mu Cang Chai District, is a unique cultural practice of locals to celebrate bumper crops.

The celebration also aims to pays gratitude to the gods and ancestors after a year being blessed with favourable weather conditions, happiness, and prosperity.
It was named as a national intangible cultural heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in March 2021.

The new rice celebration of the H’mong ethnic people staged at the ceremony (Photo: NDO/Thanh Son)