| Yên Bái province | |||||
| Native Name: | Tỉnh Yên Bái | ||||
| Native Name Lang: | vi | ||||
| Type: | Province | ||||
| Nickname: | Tranquillity | ||||
| Image Map1: |
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| Coordinates: | 21.5°N 144°W | ||||
| Subdivision Type: | Country | ||||
| Subdivision Type1: | Region | ||||
| Subdivision Name1: | Northwest | ||||
| Seat Type: | Capital | ||||
| Seat: | Yên Bái | ||||
| Government Type: | Province | ||||
| Governing Body: | Yên Bái Provincial People's Council | ||||
| Parts Type: | Subdivision | ||||
| Parts: | 1 city, 7 rural districts and one town | ||||
| Leader Title1: | Chairman of People's Council | ||||
| Leader Name1: | Phạm Thị Thanh Trà | ||||
| Leader Title2: | Chairman of People's Committee | ||||
| Leader Name2: | Trần Huy Tuấn | ||||
| Area Total Km2: | 6892.67 | ||||
| Area Footnotes: | [1] | ||||
| Population Footnotes: | [2] | ||||
| Population Total: | 847,250 | ||||
| Population As Of: | 2022 | ||||
| Population Density Km2: | auto | ||||
| Population Urban: | 168,774 | ||||
| Demographics Type1: | Ethnic groups | ||||
| Demographics1 Footnotes: | [3] | ||||
| Demographics1 Title1: | Vietnamese | ||||
| Demographics1 Info1: | 42.71% | ||||
| Demographics1 Title2: | Tày | ||||
| Demographics1 Info2: | 18.28% | ||||
| Demographics1 Title3: | Mông | ||||
| Demographics1 Info3: | 13.04% | ||||
| Demographics1 Title4: | Dao | ||||
| Demographics1 Info4: | 12.33% | ||||
| Demographics1 Title5: | Thái | ||||
| Demographics1 Info5: | 7.58% | ||||
| Demographics1 Title6: | Others | ||||
| Demographics1 Info6: | 6.06% | ||||
| Demographics Type2: | GDP[4] | ||||
| Demographics2 Title1: | Province | ||||
| Demographics2 Info1: | VND 27.404 trillion US$ 1.190 billion | ||||
| Timezone: | ICT | ||||
| Utc Offset: | +7 | ||||
| Area Code Type: | Area codes | ||||
| Area Code: | 216 | ||||
| Iso Code: | VN-06 | ||||
Yên Bái (in Vietnamese pronounced as /ʔiən˧˧ ʔɓaːj˧˦/) is a province located in Northwest Vietnam. It shares borders with six provinces which are Hà Giang province, Lào Cai province, Lai Châu province, Sơn La province, Phú Thọ province, and Tuyên Quang province.[5] The province covers an area of about 6892.67km2[1] and as of 2022 it had a population of 847,250 people.[2]
Yên Bái's history is important under the French colony, particularly the subsequent "Yên Bái mutiny", an uprising of Vietnamese soldiers in the French colonial army on 10 February 1930 in collaboration with civilian supporters who were members of the Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (VNQDD, the Vietnamese Nationalist Party).[6] [7]
Forestry and farming are the main economic stays of the province. Thác Bà Lake is a natural asset of the country along with its Thác Bà Hydroelectric Plant. Dong Cuong Festival is an important festival of the province.[5] [8]
According to the General Statistics Office of the Government of Vietnam, the population of Yên Bái province as on 2019 was 821,030 with a density of 119 persons per km2 over a total land area of 6887.46km2 of the province. The male population during this period was 412,977 while the female population was 408,053.
There are many ethnic groups in Yên Bái province. The Kinh people, who form the majority population of the country, settled here a long time ago and in union with the local minority tribes established themselves in the region and developed cultivation practices. The Kinh people's ancestry is traced to the Hải Dương Pham Ba Luc for nine generations till date and a monument erected in 1937 in Doc village in Hong Commune is highly revered as an ancestral home.[9]
There are 4 ethnic Yao (Dao) branches in Yên Bái province (Nguyễn 2013:12).[10]
See main article: Yên Bái mutiny. The area was occupied in ancient times, given the favourable communications along the Hong and Chay Rivers. Several archaeological digs in the province have unearthed ancient temples and other sites. Stone tools have been excavated in Mù Cang Chải District.
Vietnam had gradually become a French colony between 1859 and 1883.[11] Initially, military resistance to French rule came through the Cần Vương movement led by Tôn Thất Thuyết and Phan Đình Phùng, which sought to install the boy Emperor Hàm Nghi at the head of an independent nation. However, with the death of Phùng in 1895, military opposition effectively ended. The only other notable incidents after this came in 1917 was the Thái Nguyên rebellion. The lack of militant activity changed in the late 1920s with the formation of the VNQDĐ, or Vietnamese Nationalist Party.[12] The VNQDĐ attempted clandestine activities to undermine French rule, which resulted in French scrutiny of their activities. This led to their leadership group taking the risk of staging a large scale military attack in the Red River Delta in Northern Vietnam. It was only on 10 February 1931 that VNQDĐ could, in collaboration with civilian supporters, launch the Yên Bái mutiny, an uprising of Vietnamese soldiers in the French colonial army. Thus, Yên Bái was the first of the battles during the First Indochina War. Yên Bái and Thái Nguyên were key military posts of the Việt Minh, which were supplied with arms from China to fight the French during this War.[13]
On 9 February 1930 part of the 4th Regiment of Tonkinese Rifles stationed at Yên Bái mutinied against their French officers but were suppressed by loyal troops from the same unit. The attack was the largest disturbance against the colonisation of Vietnam since the Cần Vương monarchist movement of the late 19th century. The aim of the revolt was to inspire a wider uprising among the general populace in an attempt to overthrow the colonial regime and establish independence. The Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (VNQDĐ, the Vietnamese Nationalist Party) had previously attempted to engage in clandestine activities to undermine French rule, but increasing French scrutiny on their activities led to their leadership group taking the risk of staging a large scale military attack in the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam. This incident led to widespread disturbances against French rule across northeastern Vietnam during 1930–31.
In the "Yen Bai Uprising of 1930" against the French colonial rule, many French army officers were killed. To putdown the uprising, the French resorted to aerial bombardment and even napalm bombs were used. The rebellion was put down ruthlessly by the French within a day; many Vietnamese soldiers and 12 VNQDĐ leaders were executed. Following this repressive action by the French, there were frequent anti-colonialist strikes and riots throughout the country, which were all put down ruthlessly. This resulted in breaking the backbone of the VNQDD and the Communist Party in North Vietnam for a considerable period.[13]
The French maintained control of their colonies until World War II, when the Japanese war in the Pacific triggered the invasion of French Indochina in 1941.
In 1961, a large bronze cylindrical jar was discovered with carved images of males and females in copulation. In 1964 an 80,000-year-old skeleton was unearthed in Hum Cave in Lục Yên District. In 1996, another bronze jar was discovered along with the 2000-year-old remains of a 6-year-old girl on Choi Mountain in the commune of Hợp Minh, Trấn Yên District.[9]
Yên Bái covers an area of 6899.5km2, and the Red River passes through the province. Yên Bái is a mountain province, characterised by rugged mountainous scenery and green rice paddy fields in the valleys. The Hoàng Liên Sơn mountain range runs through the province. The Red (or Thao) River and Chay River flow the province. Their origin is in Yunnan, China. The valley created by these two river systems in the Yên Bái province is fertile, though an uneven territory; Muong Lo plain is the rice bowl of the province.[14] The topography is steep, rising from east to west and from south to north. The average elevation is about 600m (2,000feet) above sea level and can be divided into two regions: low-lying regions on the left bank of the Red River basin and the high right bank of the Red River and in the plateau between the Red River and Đà River there are many mountains. Besides the two main rivers, the Red and the Đà, the province has about 200 canals, small streams and large lakes and swamps. Thác Bà Lake is situated in the province, an artificial lake which has an area of 23400ha and 1,331 islands and hills.[15] It has a capacity of 3 to 3.9 billion cubic meters of water and its original intention was to run the Thác Bà hydroelectric plant, one of the first large hydropower projects in Vietnam. The water in the lake is blue and clear, and reflects the surrounding green forests. The thousands of hills and islands have many caves, including Hum, Cau Cuoi and Bach Xa. A Thác Bà Temple is located in the lake area.[15] Thác Bà Lake has changed the climatic pattern in the western districts of the province, to a moderate condition from its hot and dry status.[16] The main biomes of the province are rainforest, subtropical and temperate mountainous zones. It experiences a tropical monsoon season. The 20293ha conservation area Mu Cang Chai Species / Habitat Conservation Area (MCC SHCA) was established in 2004 to protect the endangered mountain wildlife in Cang Chai district on the border of Lào Cai province.[17]
The mean temperature in the province at elevations above 1500m is about 20C and drops to 0C with frost and snow in some parts. December–January are winter months when the climate is dry. Frequent drizzle is experienced during late winter months; this type of rain has earned Yên Bái the epithet "drizzle centre of the country". April to December are summer months and the rainy period. The mean temperature is stable for the district as a whole and is in the range of 18C to 28C.[5] [18]
Many archaeological findings have been unearthed in the provinces in places, which date human settlement between hoary 8000 years to the recent 2000 years; these have been preserved in the Archaeological Museum in Yên Bái City. The archaeological antiquaries found are; a large cylindrical jar in Dao Thinh Commune depicting scene of human cohabitation, a skeleton of an ancient Viet and another bronze jar containing the remnants of a six-year-old girl in Hum Cave in Luc Yen.[9]
Yên Bái is subdivided into 9 district-level sub-divisions and 173 commune-level sub-divisions:
The total area of the province is 689900ha, out of which the agricultural area is 78600ha, forest land forms major part of 453600ha, homestead land accounts for 4000ha and land used for special purposes is 30200ha.[19] The per capita production of cereals in 2008 was 289 kg.[20]
Yên Bái is home to 281 cooperatives, which are considered an effective way of generating employment to thousands of workers. These cooperatives are engaged in fields such as agricultural services, industrial services, construction, commerce, transportation, People's Credit Funds and health care. Cooperatives services include the production of black tea (manufacturing and processing), farm and forestry, fertilizers, transportation, electric supply in rural areas, and so forth.[21] A survey of the economic situation in Yên Bái carried out in 2006 indicated that living standards had increased substantially. For the period 1990 to 2004, Gross domestic product (GDP) tripled with an average increase of 7.5% per year. Poverty index decreased from 58% in 1993 to 16% in 2006 (as per General Statistics Office, 2006). However, underemployment, unstable income, inadequate childcare, limited access to health, child labour, social issues related to old people and social evils, gender inequality needed to addressed.[22]
Farming, in particular, has been adopted as an important means for the acceleration of socio-economic development in rural areas. A reorganization of farming economy is planned through the establishment of centralized commodities production zones to enhance rural income, value of the land and levels of farming household income through agricultural extension services. In terms of agricultural products, main crops in the province include tea, cinnamon, glutinous rice, grapefruit, orange, taro and fish. About 700 farms are reportedly engaged in growing trees for pulp production, tea, cinnamon trees, breeding poultry, cattle and pigs.[23]
In the mountainous northern region, non-timber forest products in an area of 5000000ha are planned under a reforestation program, which includes about 40000ha under cinnamon; 15000ha have been developed.[24]
25 key agricultural extension programmes have been developed to meet different growing periods in different terrains namely low lying and mountainous land. Further, more than 50 planting and husbandry models have been adopted envisaging new farming methods, centred on developing food, industrial plants and stock breeding for trading. Intensive farming of winter maize on two-rice-crop fields, intensive farming of hybrid rice strains in mountainous district of Mu Cang Chai, planting high-quality rice, sugar cane, coffee strains, raising chickens, planting forests have also been adopted by the farmers [25]
In all, 33 ores and minerals are currently mined in the numerous quarries in Lục Yên District, out of which 23 are valid minerals, including gemstones. Among these ores and minerals are: apatite, biotite, calcite, chlorite group, chondrodite, corundum, danburite, elbaite, fluor-cannilloite, graphite, humite, lepidolite, varieties of microcline such as amazonite, muscovite, olivine, orthoclase, paragonite, pargasite, phlogopite, pyrite, quartz and smoky quartz, rossmanite, rutile, schorl, spinel, titanite and tourmaline; gemstones such as rubies, spinel, and tourmaline. Lục Yên is particularly famous for its rubies.[26]
The Chay River, the second largest tributary of the Lo River, which in turn joins the Mekong River, rises from the Tay Con Linh mountain range (in Vietnam) at a height of 2419m (7,936feet). After flowing towards the west, it flows further southeast in the middle and lower reaches, at which point it joins the Lô River at Đoan Hùng. The basin is delimited by high mountain ranges—in the north by ranges of to in height, on the west by the Con Voi mountain range and on the east and south east by the Tay Con Linh range. The width of the river is wide in its upper reaches and "tapers to an elongated shape in the middle and lower reaches". The basin has an area of 6500 km (1620 km in China) with 60% area below an elevation of 400 m (average elevation of the basin is 858 m). The annual rainfall in the basin varies from 1,500 mm to 3,000 mm with rains concentrated (75–85%) during May to October.[27]
Water from the Chay River that flows through the Yên Bái district has been tapped for hydropower generation, irrigation water supply in the downstream area, aquaculture and river navigation.[28]
The Thác Bà Hydropower Plant is a major hydropower project located within the province on the Chay River, built between 1964 and 1971 with assistance from the Soviet Union. Construction began on August 19, 1964. Despite frequent air strikes by the United States Air Force during this period, the first unit of the power plant was commissioned on October 5, 1971; the second unit followed on August 1972, and the third unit on May 19, 1972. The power plant currently has a capacity of 120 MW, and has an energy generating potential of 400 million kWh/year. The project as built has a dam 48 m high and 657 m long, creating a gross storage capacity of 2.49 cubic kilometres with a live storage of 2.16 cubic kilometres on the Chay River draining a catchment of 6430 km at the dam site. The reservoir is 60 km with a water spread of 235 km at the Full Reservoir Level of +58 m. The project has been designed for a maximum flood discharge of 3,650 m/s. The other ruling levels of the project are: dead storage level in the reservoir +46.0m and maximum flood level of +59.65 for a thousand-year flood.[29] [30]
Every year, the Yên Bái Provincial People's Committee arrange the Thác Bà Discovery Festival, supported by Lào Cai, Phú Thọ and Yên Bái provinces. It is held in the vicinity of the Thác Bà Hydroelectric Power Plant. Participants in the festival typically visit the lake and take part in a boat race that is held there. A village festival showcasing ethnic minorities, a trade fair, a costume show, sports and traditional art competitions are also held.[31]
The Yên Bái city is an important transport hub of Northern Vietnam.
Dong Cuong and Dai Cai are two temples in the province. Dai Cai Temple has been built amidst a large lush green is approached from riverside roads. Excavations by Archaeologist have found relics of Son Vi culture in the Dong Cuong Temple area.
Many festivals are celebrated in the province, as decided by an Organising Board. Some of the important festivals are:[36]
Other places of interest to visit are the Mu Cang Chai species and bio-landscape reserve, the western region of white Bauhilia flower and the Giang Spring.[36]