Backpacking Northern Vietnam Part I – Crossing the border from Hekou to Lao Cai
January the 28th, 2017
Not too long ago we had this idea of traveling from China to Vietnam, crossing the border from Hekou (Yunan, South China) to Lao Cai (North Vietnam) on foot. The easiest and most straight forward preperation we did was to buy a Lonely Planet of the destination country and do some googleing to research the feasibility of this endeavour. Turns out it is much easier than anticipated. Since we live in Beijing we booked a flight to Kunming, which took around 3 hours to bring us from the eastern capital to the southern edge of China. Since our flight touched down late that night, we took a cab from the Kunming airport to the Jinjiang hotel close to the train station. That way we gained some extra hours of sleep the next morning and only had a 10 minute walk up the road to reach the train station.
In order to save time and to avoid the masses queueing up at the ticket counter at the train station, find one of these ticket offices and collect yours well before starting the trip. It’s 5 RMB service fee per ticket.
Tipp: Claim your train ticket before heading to the station. We bought the train ticket on CTrip some days before the journey and only needed to present our original passports at the small local ticket booth to be able to receive it ahead of time.
Boarding the train at Kunming’s main station the route all the way down to Hekou Bei (North) took around five hours. The landscape was unexpectedly unremarkable: 70 percent of the time we passed through tunnels, while the remaining 30 percent were equally divided between highly unsustainable coal factories and small valleys. Since one of the main objectives of the journey was to cross the Chinese-Vietnamese border on foot, we were bound to take the train, but just for the joy of riding a train through “rural” China I would not recommend this particular route. There is no direct flight from China’s capital to Hekou – the bordering city to Vietnam – and as far as we know Hekou does not have an airport anyways. Arriving in Hekou North in the early afternoon, we walked out of the train station and expected to be pointed into the right direction by a billboard or an information counter. There is none, only a long line of small buses headed for the city center of Hekou. Board any of these buses for 2 RMB and get driven to the river that divides the two countries.
Once you cleared customs and decended the escalator, you are allowed to pass through to the other side.
It’s another 30 minutes walk from where the bus drops you off to the actual border control. Keep on walking down the same road along the river until you see the massive triangular gate to the border bridge. The access to it is blocked by a high fence, so you will have to continue down the road to the left, then take the first street right. On the day that we crossed over to Vietnam there were not particularly many tourists there, but enough people were entering the inspection center to guide us into the right direction. Don’t expect helpful signs to guide your way, just follow the other travelers and take the elevator on the far left side of the government bureau up to Chinese customs. Much like the country exit on the airport, you are asked to fill out the small yellow departure card when leaving China and queue up to have your passport reviewed by a border control officer.
Tipp: On the small yellow departure card, simply put in “Walking” in the field “Flight No./Ship’s Name/Train No.” as a means of exit.
Once you handed your passport and departure card to the border officer, smiled into the digital camera to take the picture for the data base and passed the usual checkings at the border, you will receive the Chinese exit stamp into your passport. Now you are free to decend the escalator on the other side of the building and cross the bridge over to Vietnam.
Lao Cai International Border Gate Administration Center
The next building to come into view is the Lao Cai International Border Gate Administration Center, where you must first pass the usual “quarantine control”, which mainly consists of a woman checking your passport and a heat camera measuring your temperature, before going through the Vietnamese border controll and receiving your entrance stamp into your passport. Interesting side note: As a German citizen you don’t need a VISA for Vietnam unless you plan to spend more than 15 days in the country. Congratulation – you made it over the South China border and into Vietnam!
rice is the new bread 