Lao Cai

The town on Vietnam’s northern frontier, near Sapa, 200 km beyond Mu Cang Chai and the end point of Harry’s ride. Cold, and in cloud when he arrives.

The border

• The crossing is open, and he can’t use it. China requires a visa arranged in advance; there is none on arrival.
• What he can see from the Vietnamese bank: Chinese signage and a wall of high-rise buildings, against a distinctly low-rise Vietnamese side. It is the first time he has laid eyes on China.
• A river and then a gate, and the gate runs the entire length of the border. He had expected fencing with gaps, rides east looking for one, and finds none — the unfenced stretches, he reads, are far away.
• He apologises on camera for the title of the video, says the lesson is to get the visa next time, and adds that the ride was the point anyway.

The mountain-top attraction

Spotted from the road and investigated blind.

• 500 to get in, including one free activity, and an elevator up.
• A 100-metre glass skywalk over a sheer drop. He is not afraid of heights, says so, and then says twice that he isn’t exaggerating: the wind, the movement and the transparency make it genuinely terrifying. Local visitors stroll across it.
• A harnessed bridge across an open valley, which he takes on to make the point about comfort zones, and which he says demanded more concentration than any exam he’s sat.
• The far side is half building site, half abandoned theme park, with a pool and a temple, and nobody there to unclip him.

Harry’s tips

• Get the Chinese visa before you ride here. There is no crossing on arrival and no gap in the fence.
• Stop at the thing you can’t identify from the road. He had no idea what the complex was and it produced the best twenty minutes of the day.
• Do the glass walk before the harnessed bridge, not after — his own order, and the escalation is the whole experience.

Source

• Solo Journey to Vietnam’s Border with China 🇻🇳 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LtGV7T8ODE