From Cao Bang, visitors on Vietnam package Tours spend more than an hour crossing the winding pass to Thang Hen Lake. This place is considered as the fairy world by the professional backpackers.
Overview of Thang Hen Lake
About 30km along the provincial road 205, along with other tourist destinations such as Pac Bo historical site, Ban Gioc – Nguom Ngao cave …, Thang Hen lake is mentioned as one of the prominent and attractive eco-tourist sites, with many romantic and poetic landscapes associated with legend and mystery attracting domestic and foreign tourists of Vietnam Travel Agent to visit.
Located in Quoc Toan commune, Tra Linh district, Cao Bang province, Thang Hen Lake is a beautiful lake among the 36 lakes located in the mountains of our country. Thang Hen Lake is a Best destination in Vietnam in the middle of a mountainous region and the green of the trees stretching out over the cliffs shimmering in the clear water.
Thang Hen lake has a diamond shape, about 300m wide, more than 1,000m long, in the middle of the Chinese white olive and Chinese black olive forest, with rugger rocks. The head of the water source is a large cave, from the cave, water flows all day and night. Particularly, the water of Thang Hen Lake has two waves of “up and down”. In the flood season, while other lakes become red, Thang Hen Lake is always green. In the dry season, the lake is only about 10m deep. Near Thang Hen Lake, there is Thang Luong lake, in the midst of the lake, there is a spectacular mountain.
The story of Thang Hen Lake
Thang Hen Lake has a very interesting myth. According to folk legends, in the past in Cao Bang there was a guy named Sung who was handsome and intelligent. He became the mandarin and was awarded by the king seven days to return home. Back home, he married a beautiful girl called Booc. Attracted to his beautiful new wife, he forgot the day returned to work. At the seventh night, he remembered the work, hurried goodbye his wife and parents to run to the capital. In the middle of the night in the wilderness, he ran 36 steps, fell on the mountain and died. 36 steps of the guy today are 36 large and small lakes with different names of dialects in Tra Linh district. Legend has it that the place where he lay down is today’s Lake of Thang Hen.
The name of Thang Hen Lake in the local Tay language means “tail of bee”, because from above, the visitors will see the shape of the lake like a bee. These natural lakes have many natural specialties with more than 100 different types of fish, including a very rare species such as firefish, Semilabeo notabilis, … The fish here grow very fast because they are living in the fresh environment, the water is wide surrounded by high rocky mountains and thick vegetation, plentiful food source.
The green lake
At present, the group of Thang Hen Lake has 36 natural lakes, each lake a few dozen or several meters apart. The lakes are private, but all are connected by underground caves. These 36 natural freshwater lakes are located in a vast valley between Quoc Toan (Tra Linh) and Ngu Lao (Hoa An) communes. The names are created in the local language, such as Thang Vat, Na Ma, Thang Loong, Thang Hoi … In particular, Thang Hen is the largest lake in 36 lakes. Thang Hen Lake is surrounded by old forest canopies and rugger rocks and is up to 4 m deep.
Thang Hen has a beautiful landscape with green trees stretching out over the cliffs, shining down to the green water, bending around the boulders of valley. In the morning, from the top of the mountain, you can see the clouds like white silk strands flying in the wind. At the head of the lake there is a large cave called Thang Hen Cave. Regardless of the flood season or the dry season, the water in the lake is always green. The area of Thang Hen lake has a steep rocky terrain of 5m – 30m, rocky mountains have rare trees, ancient trees that last hundreds of years and many kinds of orchids, various kinds of plants. It is rich with many wild animals, such as yellow monkey, woodpecker, forest bird …
Additional, To enjoy the most beautiful sightseeings in Vietnam by your eyes, you can see some itineraries below Halong Bay Cruises – Hanoi Tour – Vietnam Tours – Sapa Tours – Package Tours or book a private car to discover where ever you want to enjoy the Vietnamese taste.