Lao Cai
Lao Cai is a mountainous province near the international border gate with an area of 6383.89 square kilometers, shares the borders with Ha Giang in the East, Son La and Lai Chau provinces in the West, Yen Bai province in the South and Yunnan Province (China) in the North. Lao Cai has the population of 761.9 thousand inhabitants and is also the homeland of major ethnic groups of the country such as Viet (Kinh), H’Mong, Tay, Dao, Thai, etc. Lao Cai is an ancient land; its terrain appearance was formed 50 to 60 million years ago. More than ten thousand years ago, the human were present here. During the Hung Vuong period, Lao Cai province located in Tan Hung, an economic and political center in the Red River upstream. When making the map, the French wrote Lao Cai as Lao Kay. The noun “Lao Kay” was used in the text and the seal. However, in the folk communication, people still called Lao Cai. After Lao Cai province was liberated (November 1950), the name “Lao Cai” was uniformly called to this day.
