Waiting 5 hours to cross Lao Cai border gate to China for tourism

Tourists passing through Lao Cai border gate to Hekou, China, today had to wait up to 5 hours because of the sharp increase in the number of tourists.

Minh Anh, who lives in Hanoi, joined a group tour of Hanoi - Ha Khau - Binh Bien - Kien Thuy - Mong Tu. She arrived at Lao Cai border gate at 5am, earlier than usual as requested by the tour seller. However, there was already a long queue. Although the female tourist was "very tired", she still felt lucky because she only had to wait until 9:30am to get through Ha Khau border gate.

"I knew it would be crowded, but I didn't think I'd have to wait this long. Maybe it's because the Chinese tours to Hekou are quite cheap, so everyone is flocking to go," she said.

Groups of tourists wait their turn to go to Ha Khau border gate to complete procedures. Photo: NVCC — Passengers wait their turn to go to Ha Khau border gate to do procedures. Photo: *NVCC*

Responding to VnExpress , Ms. Hoang Tuyet, Director of Top One Travel, said the company organized four groups departing to Ha Khau - Binh Bien - Kien Thuy - Mong Tu on September 2, two groups departed on September 1, each group had 30-40 people. She said that on normal days, the group members would gather at Lao Cai border gate at 6:15 or 6:30 because the Chinese side does not start working until 7:00. However, with the 6 groups departing during the holiday, the company requires guests to arrive before 5:00 to be able to pass through the border gate as soon as possible.

Ms. Tuyet said that the time to pass Hekou is not fixed, depending on whether the group has members detained in the waiting room or not. The waiting room is where border security officers keep visitors for further inspection if there are any suspicious signs. If lucky, visitors are only detained for a few minutes, but the inspection process can also last several hours.

"This time, I saw a lot of people being held in the waiting room. A group usually has 5-7 people being held, especially women," said Ms. Tuyet. She said that not long ago, she was also held in the waiting room even though she had just arrived in China two weeks ago.

All four groups of the company gathered at the same time, the time they passed through the border gate was quite far apart. The earliest group arrived at 8:10 and the last group at 10:30.

According to many travel agencies, the Ha Khau - Binh Bien - Kien Thuy - Mong Tu tour is "hot" with Vietnamese tourists, although previously most of the elderly chose this product. This tour is currently cheap (about 2.8 million VND per person for a 3-day, 2-night trip), has many scenic spots to explore and has foreign tourism elements. In addition, tourists only need a passport (taken care of by the travel agency), no visa or passport required. Although traveling by road, 95% of the journey is on the highway, not causing much fatigue.

Currently, tourists who want to travel this route must go through a travel agency, with a tour guide. Tourists traveling on their own can only visit Hekou for a day.

Tu Nguyen

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