Mu Cang Chai, a mountainous district in northern Yen Bai Province famous for its rice terraces, is transformed into a sea of pink peach blossoms, signalling the approach of spring. 

Mu Cang Chai, a far-lung retreat that has escaped the holiday crowds, is popular with locals and foreign tourists for its golden rice terraces in September and October each year. But from late December until January, the district puts on a new outfit with pinky peach blossoms blanketing the northern highlands area as reflected in this series of photos by Le Trung Kien.

Peach blossoms have five pink petals with long red pistils, blooming in clusters until Lunar New Year Festival, or Tet, considered the biggest and most important festival in Vietnam. They are mainly planted in the poverty-stricken La Pan Tan Commune.

The country will enjoy a seven-day holiday for the festival, staring January 23, two days before the Lunar New Year.

Peach trees bask in the warm spring sunshine above a H’Mong ethnic minority bungalow in Trong Tong Village, La Pan Tan Commune.

Mu Cang Chai sits at 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) above sea level at the foot of the Hoang Lien Son mountain range. The H’Mong started carving rice terraces into the mountain range centuries ago and continue to plant and harvest the crop today.

For many years, Mu Cang Chai is said to be at its most beautiful from late September to early October, when rice terraces are dyed yellow. Now is another ideal time to take a motorbike trip along its rugged and winding roads to enjoy the romantic landscape of this down-but-not-out district. 

A little girl of ethnic minority group H'mong is trying to touch the peach blossoms which are blooming vividly.

Le Trung Kien, a local teacher in Mu Cang Chai and also author of this photo collection, said the H’Mong don’t know when the first peach tree appeared but that they herald the approach of spring.

A H'Mong mother and her child traverse the peach tree forest.

Sunset over Mu Cang Chai bathes the district a rusty hue.

For a long time, the mention of Mu Cang Chai evoked images of a far away, remote, untouched place for many travelers; so much so that the name was used as both synonym and idiom for something almost unreachable.

Today, it takes just seven hours by road to reach the mountainous district, northwest of Hanoi.