Overview of Vietnam northwest Highlands

Geographic features
The North is mountainous region in the West of northern Vietnam, shares a border with Laos and China. This region is sometimes called the northern and Northwest is one of three primary regions of North Vietnam (2 in the Northeast and the other is the Red River Delta). Includes 4 provinces of Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Son La, Hoa Binh.
Natural area of 37533.8 km2, making up 11.33% of the land area of the country.
Population, accounted for 3.11% people 2,650,100 national population (2007).
To the North is the high mountains, the Vietnam-China border delineation.
The West and South is the successive high mountains, which border Vietnam-Laos
The East and Southeast are the Hoang lien mountain highest in Vietnam and Indochina, with Phanxipan peak (3143 m), adjacent to the North-East and part of the Red River Delta.
The South borders with North Central.
Topographic characteristics:
Northwest rugged terrain, there are many high mountains and mountain runs Northwest-Southeast. .
The Northwest region has two major rivers, which is the Black River flows North-East to the South and the River (Red River News). The sources of the rivers well above Code Northwest Territories.
Either side of the Black River is the limestone plateau and plateau succession: Dien Bien, Lo, Muong Thanh is the basin in the North-Western Railway, MOC Chau Bulge now, Ther is the High Plains here.
Earthquake risk: Northwest is a region of high earthquake risk for Vietnam.
The climate
The tropical climate is influenced by the monsoon regime. Monsoon regimes contrast sharply: summer and winter.
Thermal amplitude between day and night in the Highlands is greater in high mountain valleys.
The average relative humidity is usually from 78-93%, in the subregion have spread from 2-5%.
The large amounts of precipitation, the average from 1800-2500 mm per year.
The special weather phenomena in Northern Laos and wind chill wind is local. In addition there is hail, Frost, ice. ..
Natural resources
Water
Northwest is drained by a few large river systems such as the Black River, the River, the river lather.
Black River originates in Wei Shan (Yunnan, China), 983 km in length (on Vietnam soil 543 km long). This is Vietnam’s largest hydropower resources. Hot water resources in the region are relatively numerous but are in the form of untapped potential and many.
In the North-Western discovery was 80 points hot water and mineral water, which has 16 points were investigated thoroughly and have use value
Minerals
Coal:
The Northwest region is the region has many mineral resources such as coal, metals, metals etc of coal reserves of about 10 million tons, to meet local needs.
Nickel-Gold:
To date have discovered four mines nickel and dozens of ore point
Placer gold distribution along the Black River and some just save, on the slopes of the river and the district, Muong, Quỳnh Nhai, Sìn Hồ district Outdoor, European Pros. ..
Land and forests
Rare earths:
Rare earth Northwest region has huge potential to scale to the largest type of Vietnam
In the structure of land use, farmland seized 9.92 percent, 13.18% forest land, land of 1.75% and use the unused land 75.13%. There are two main forms of red soil and yellow soil is between the mountains as well as along the banks of the River Valley.
Northwest region strong on modern cattle breeding thanks to the wide fields, appropriate climate, especially grazing took meat and milk in MOC Chau plateau (Sơn La).
Forest resources: of the region was strong.
THE MAIN PEOPLES OF NORTH-WEST
Muong people accounted for 1.2% of the population of the country.
Thais accounting for nearly 1.3% of the population of the country. There are also people, settled and production activity in the mountain with an elevation of over 1,500 m on the northern border to the upper Thanh Hoa, Nghe An tourist. Account for about 0.7% of the national population.
Yao, a resident at an altitude of 700-1000 m, i.e. lower than the height of the Butt in between the mountains, where the forest is burning accident cause erosion phenomena with disturbing speed.
The same living area with the ethnic minorities there.
The population density
The population density is very low and the entire region. The largest concentration is the town, the town, the settlement focuses (agriculture, forestry), the cities and on the roads. On the contrary in high mountain areas, less traffic, walking difficulties … usually only the minority live, so the population density is very low.
Labor sources
The total number of workers in the age of North-West is 986 thousand inhabitants, including 878 thousand workers are employed in the national economy (accounting for 90.7% of total labor). 9.3% of such workers have yet to get a job. The region’s agricultural workers dominate 76.6%, industry and services only 23.4%.
The number of people above and below the age likely to join Labor estimated 163,000 people (accounting for 18.8% of the workforce).
Table: academic and technical expertise of the Northwest region