Dong Van stone plateau popular with visitors

The Dong Van Stone Plateau in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang has attracted 30,000 tourists, including over 10,000 foreigners, helping raise the province’s tourism revenue to VND41 billion in July.
Covering a total area of nearly 2,400sq.m, the Plateau is home to 34 percent of the province’s population.
The recognition of Dong Van as the first geopark in Vietnam and the second in Southeast Asia by the Global Network of National Geoparks (GGN) in October last year has given a boost to local tourism development.
By developing community cultural villages and tourism infrastructure to lure more than 350,000 tourists in 2011, Ha Giang has so far brought in around VND300 billion in revenue.
Since 2007, the province has invested over VND989 billion in building 91 water reservoirs on the Dong Van Stone Plateau, of which 37 have been completed and put into use.
The operation of the reservoirs helps solve water shortages and improve the lives of ethnic minority people in the province’s four poor mountainous districts, namely Quan Ba, Yen Minh, Dong Van and Meo Vac.
It also helps boost economic development and maintain political stability in the border areas.