Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The northern mountainous province of Ha Giang and Hoi An city in the central province of Quang Nam have been ranked among the Top 44 most beautiful places in the world by renowned UK-based travel magazine Time Out.
The magazine ranked Ha Giang in tenth place, saying the winding mountain passes, terraced rice paddies and 43 different ethnic groups that call this place home, all combine to give Ha Giang its otherworldly air.
According to Time Out, Tham Ma Pass is an obvious pull, winding its way through six successive hairpin bends, while the Ma Pi Leng Pass carves a mountain edge, overlooking the Nho Que River 3000 feet below.
"However, my personal favourite vista in Ha Giang affords a different kind of beauty, the kind to confront you with your own teeny-tiny mortality. In La Si and its surrounding region you'll glimpse mountain after mountain, as far as the eye can see, of terraced rice paddies. It's taken thousands (yes thousands) of years of hard toil to tame these mountains into the rice producing expanse that it is today", wrote the magazine.
Meanwhile, Time Out describes that life in Hoi An moves like molasses – slow and sweet.
"When I lived in this dreamy little community, I spent mornings sipping coconut coffee in cafes and afternoons biking through swaying rice paddies past grazing buffalo. Now, I spend a few months a year here, watching lantern-lit boats glide along the Thu Bon River, cycling through Old Town before the evening crowds gather, and lounging on one of Vietnam's most beautiful beaches", a writer for the magazine noted.
Over 50 years since its foundation in London, Time Out has become a global media and hospitality brand influencing how tens of millions of people go out around the world, with content covering 333 cities in 59 countries.
Time Out's high-quality content, curated by expert journalists, now spans a global network of websites, social media channels, videos, live events and Time Out Markets.
Nearly 7.7 million foreign arrivals travelled to Vietnam in the first four months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 23%, the National Statistics Office reported.
The surge in international arrivals affirms the effectiveness of Vietnam's tourism stimulus initiatives, laying a strong foundation for the country to meet its 2025 targets of welcoming between 22 to 23 million foreign visitors./.
