Mai Châu district

Mai Châu district Huyện Mai Châu
District
Country	Vietnam
Region	Northwest
Province	Hòa Bình
Capital	Mai Châu
Area
• Total	200 sq mi (520 km2)
Population  (2003)
• Total	48,570
Time zone	UTC+7 (Indochina Time)

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Vietnamese. (March 2009) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Vietnamese article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Vietnamese Wikipedia article at [[:vi:Mai Châu]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|vi|Mai Châu}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Mai Châu is a rural district of Hòa Bình province in the Northwest region of Vietnam. The district is located at about 135 km from Hanoi. The scenery of Mai Châu attracts many tourists.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003, the district had a population of 48,570.^[1] The district covers an area of 520 km². The district capital is the city of Mai Châu.^[1]

Geographical features

Mai Châu is a mountainous region located in Hòa Bình Province, approximately 135 km from Hanoi and 65 km from Hòa Bình. The east of Mai Châu borders Đà Bắc and Tân Lạc districts, the west and the south border Quan Hóa district of Thanh Hóa province, and the north borders Vân Hồ district of Sơn La province. Mai Châu's terrain is quite complex, divided by slits, streams and high mountains. According to the topographic characteristics, Mai Châu can be divided into two distinct areas: the low region (relatively flat terrain with fertile soil) and the high region (with many high and rugged mountain ranges).^[2]

Cultural overview

The Ban Lac people have Thai ancestors that settled in northwestern Vietnam. The two tribes, White Thai and Black Thai, settled in the same area and make up the largest ethnic population of the region.

Architecture

The Mai Châu area is well known for its stilt houses. The type of stilt houses, or pile dwellings, they construct are called Thai stilt houses and are made of bamboo and timber. These houses are elevated 3.0–3.7 metres (10–12 ft) off the ground to avoid water damage and shelter animals from the elements.

Environmental pressures

Mai Châu faces several environmental concerns:

• Deforestation - Land continues to be cleared to produce more crops.
• Trash - Mai Châu faces a garbage disposal problem and this is evident in the diminishing quality of their watercourses.
• Tourism - A gradual influx of tourists puts strain on the local environment.

Gallery

• 
  Stilt house
• 
  Stick house construction
• 
  Stilt house construction
• 
  Stilt house construction
• 
  Stilt house
• 
  Traditional weaving
• 
  Woman weaving
• 
  Shuttles used in weaving
• 
  Traditional crafts
• 
  Traditional crafts
• 
  Bamboo drying
• 
  Woman with blackened teeth
• 
  Traditional music

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mai Chau.

• Mai Châu mùa xuân

20°40′01″N 105°00′00″E / 20.667°N 105.000°E / 20.667; 105.000

• Hanoi to Mai Chau Private Car