Farthest north in Laos is Phongsali, which shares borders with Yunnan (China) and Dien Bien (Vietnam). Most of Phongsaly province lies at a high altitude. Its capital, Phongsali town, is the highest city in Lao P.D.R. at 1400 m above sea level. Up there the climate is pleasant and refreshing – a perfect trekking destination! The forests of Phongsaly are the most remote in northern Laos covering the endless mountains down to the canyon of the Nam Ou River, biggest tributary of the Mekong. The population is made up of officially 28 different ethnic groups, of which the majority being Khmu, Phunoy, different Akha, Tai Lue and Hor. Several trekking tours have been established by the local tours in Phongsaly.
Most visitors of Phongsaly province get a feeling of ‘no longer being in Laos, not yet having reached China’. History tells fascinating stories, though much of it still lies in darkness. Between China and Laos the territory of north-western Phongsaly and southern Yunnan once was the independent Tai Lue kingdom of Sipsongpanna. In 1895 the French colonialists drew new boundaries along the watersheds of the Nam Ou River, claiming Sipsongpanna’s eastern part to Phongsali incorporating it into French Indochina. Its bigger part went into Yunnan province, China.
Unless many other cities in Laos, Phongsaly town has not been destroyed in the American war. It features a remaining old quarter with Yunnanese wooden architecture now rare to find in Yunnan itself. Most of the people living here belong to the Hor ethnic group, speaking Chinese. Until the 1970s there has been a Chinese consulate in Phongsaly town, now the ‘Phu Fa Hotel’. In the ‘Museum of Ethnic Groups in Phongsaly Province’ you can admire the various local cloths, artefacts and handicrafts.
The town itself is surrounded by rolling hills and is built into the side of Phu Fa Mountain (1625 m). The 45 min hike up to its stupa on top offers spectacular views of the town from above and the mountains in the far distance.
Although a bit off the main tourist circuit, visitors can spend plenty of time in Phongsaly province trekking to remote villages around the provincial capital, Boun Neua, Muang Khoua at the Nam Ou River and in Boun Tai district’s ‘Nam Lan Conservation Area’. In the northernmost district of the country, Gnot Ou, visit Vat Luang, a magnificent Tai Lue style Buddhist monastery dating back to 1445 AD. In the future ‘Phu Den Din National Protected Area’ along the border with Vietnam will be opened for boat trips. Wild animals like monkeys, elephants and tigers still claim it their territory!
The province offers a delicious variety of Lao and Yunnanese cuisine that consists of wild forest ingredients such as fragrant herbs, bamboo and rattan shoots. After dinner try a shot of the local Lao Lao, smooth, strong and tinted green! During the final stage of the distillation process this rice-whisky is running over fresh picked raspberry leaves absorbing the green colour.
Chinese-style green tea of Phongsaly receives worldwide recognition for its highest quality and superb taste. Tea leaves are picked by Phunoy minority women from up to 400 year old tea trees, standing 6 m high with a stem up to 30 cm in diameter. These precious tea leaves are compressed in bamboo cylinders and sold in cigar-shaped tubes. In this wild tea grove fertilizers and chemicals have never been used. Drinking a daily cup keeps the body in good health, reduces fat and preserves a clear mind.
