This route was built by the French from
1909-1914, originally it was a 35km long railway transporting ore from Ban Thi
(Cho Don - Bac Can) to Dam Hong (Chiem Hoa - Tuyen Quang).
Northwest Vietnam tours
Discovering Xuyen Son Thuy Lo: Inside the French tunnel in Bac Kan
The remaining vestiges in Ban Loan (Cho Don - Bac Kan) are tunnels through the
mountains, the railway bed was replaced with concrete to form the road into the
village as we see today.
This section is beautiful in a mysterious and emotional way, the road through
the mountain has a stalactite cave and on one side is a green stream with the
sound of a waterfall, looking up under the canopy of the old forest with lush
green trees, before there were monkeys jumping and climbing here... It must be
much more beautiful than the mountain roads we have seen!
Xuyen Son Thuy Lo in Loan village, a place worth visiting in the journey to
explore Bac Kan!
How to get there
- This tunnel can be used by 2.5 ton truck. So if you ask, 4-7 seater cars are
just fine. Don't take 5-ton truck and 29 seater bus!
- The route according to Google map: Yen Thinh commune - Cho Don - Bac Kan will
be about 200-210km with more than 4 hours driving. When you reach Yen Thinh
commune center, ask for directions to Loan village and you will arrive.
In addition, you can go from Bac Kan city or go from Chiem Hoa - Tuyen Quang
(this route becomes a loop that does not repeat)
Things to visit: French tunnel, Loan village and stream after the village, Phja
Khao mountain (about 18km away), ATK Cho Don market, Na Pau - Ban Thit tourist
area, Ba Be lake about 40km away and Cho Don tourist area...
Camp sites around the French tunnel in Loan village: with quite favorable
natural terrain, the streams in Cho Don district have very shallow clear water,
beautiful pebble beach, few large rocks, not too fast currents, the beach on the
stream bank is quite flat and has many trees, suitable for camping with cars and
motorbikes. In Loan village, there are 3 places where you can camp:
1: the grass field in front of the first cave, 3-4 cars
2: after the last cave, the field is a bit small, 1-2 cars
3: go deep into the village, the concrete road ends, 4wd vehicles can cross the
stream, there is a pretty nice camping ground.
That's it for now, hopefully Cho Don - Bac Kan will be known by more visitors!
Source:
https://northwestvietnamtours.com/blog/xuyen-son-thuy-lo-a-journey-through-time.php