Lạng Sơn () is a province in the Northeastern region of Vietnam, bordering China.
Geography Topography The province is set in karstic limestone mountains and valleys. Mountains and forests comprise 80% of the province's area. The province measures approximately 123 kilometres from north to south and 126 kilometres from west to east.Special issue on Lạng Sơn (1988), p.13 The average altitude of the province is above sea level. The lowest point in the province is towards the south of Hữu Lũng District and the highest point is at Mount Mẫu Sơn, which is . Mẫu Sơn is to the east of the town of Lạng Sơn by , and is surrounded by a series of peaks; snow sometimes falls on these peaks in winter. The Bac Son Mountains are located in the province and are calcareous in nature. Fertile valleys are framed by mountain ridges.
Lạng Sơn has two international border crossings. The most accessed is the Friendship Pass called the Hữu Nghị Quan crossing at Đồng Đăng connecting to Pingxiang town in China. This is the historical first land link in the north between China and Vietnam that connects Lạng Sơn and Guangxi, China. The border is open daily, from 07:00 to 17:00, and involves a walk of 500 m through the no man's territory between Vietnam and China. There is an international train service, an express route, opened in 1996 from Hanoi to Beijing (China), which operates twice a week on Tuesday and Friday that passes through Lạng Sơn Town and Đồng Đăng through this gate which has three-hour stop at the border town to complete formalities of entry from one country to the other. Passengers are not allowed to board the train at any intermediate station between Hanoi and Beijing.
Lạng Sơn is to the northwest of Hanoi and National Highways 1 and 1 A and passes the Chi Lăng pass (the site of Lê Lợi's victory over 100,000 Ming invaders from China in 1427) and Bắc Giang on National Highway 1A. Lạng Sơn is 135 km from Cao Bằng on the National Highway no 4.
Climate Lạng Sơn province has an average annual temperature of 17–22 °C and an average annual rainfall of . The average temperature in the summer is and in the winter.Special issue on Lạng Sơn (1988), p.14-15
Population
According to the General Statistics Office of the Government of Vietnam, the population of Lạng Sơn Province, as of 2019, was 781,655 with a density of 94 persons per km2 over a total land area of . The female population during this period was 382,245 while the male population was 399,410. The rural population was 621,841 against an urban population of 159,814 (about 26% of the rural population).
There are about 40 ethnic groups in Lạng Sơn recognized by the Vietnamese government. Each ethnicity has their own language, traditions, and subculture. Nùng comprised 42.90% of the population, followed by Tày at 36.08% and Kinh at 16.09%. The remainder are mostly Yao, Tanka, Sán Chay and Hmoob. Nungz dialects include Nùng Phan Slinh in eastern Lạng Sơn, Nùng Cháo around Lạng Sơn city, and Nùng Inh in western Lạng Sơn.
History From four chronicles An Nam chí lược, An Nam chí nguyên, An Nam lai uy đồ sách and Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, its name Lạng Sơn (, Nungz: Phja-lủng) was originated from Tlủng-san in ancient Annamese language, which means "valleys (lũng) + mountains (sơn)" in modern Vietnamese.
From the end of the 19th century, the name of the province has been written in international documents as Langson (English), Lang-Son (French), or sometimes Langland (in general literature and tourist posters).Les sites touristiques célèbres à Lang-Son (fr) In some cases of Vietnamese spelling before 1977, it was sometimes written as Lạng-sơn (Kinh) or La̭ng-xơn (Mường).Find out word "lạng" in the name of Lạng Sơn (vi)The origin of the name of Lạng Sơn province and interesting things you may not know (vi)
Ancient Ancient history is traced to the Bronze Age. This period is marked by the trade route that existed between China and India that passed from the Red River Delta through Nanning to Guangzhou. 7,000–9,000 years ago the limestone caves of the province were inhabited by early settlers of the Bac Son culture.Special issue on Lạng Sơn (1988), p.24-25
Middle Ages
The Đinh emperors (968-980) encouraged the growth of trade in the region and requested the Sung emperors of China that they establish trade relations at Yong Zhou. The Chinese Annals have revealed that the Annamese traded perfumes, elephant ivories, rhinoceros horns, gold, silver and salt in return for Chinese fabrics. Later, under the Lý dynasty a market was established at Vĩnh Bình on the Kỳ Cùng River.
On 4 April 1406, as a Chinese Ming envoy crossed the border into Lạng Sơn, Hồ Quý Ly's forces ambushed them and killed the Trần prince that the Ming were escorting back. Consequently, the Yongle Emperor (of Ming China) launched a punitive expedition against him due to this hostile act. During the reign of the Ming dynasty, during the period 1527 and 1592, Lạng Sơn was fortified in view of its strategic importance at the border; a citadel of this dynasty is located to the west of the Lạng Sơn town on a limestone rock outcrop.
In September 1884, detachments of the Guangxi Army advanced from Lạng Sơn and probed into the Luc Nam valley, announcing their presence by ambushing the French river gunboats Hache and Massue (of the Tonkin Flotilla) on 2 October. General Louis Brière de l'Isle, the French commander-in-chief, responded, transporting nearly 3,000 French soldiers to the Luc Nam valley aboard a flotilla of gunboats and attacking the Chinese detachments before they could concentrate. In the Kép campaign (2 to 15 October 1884), three French columns under the overall command of General François de Négrier fell upon the separated detachments of the Guangxi Army and successively defeated them in engagements at Lam (6 October), Kép (8 October) and Chu (10 October).
In the wake of these French victories, the Chinese fell back to Bắc Lệ and Dong Song, and de Négrier established forward positions at Kép and Chu, which threatened the Guangxi Army's base at Lạng Sơn. Chu was miles southwest of the Guangxi Army's advanced posts at Dong Song, and on 16 December 1884 a Chinese raiding detachment ambushed two companies of the Foreign Legion just to the east of Chu, at Ha Ho. The legionnaires fought their way out of the Chinese encirclement, and underwent a number of casualties and had to abandon their dead on the battlefield. De Négrier immediately brought up reinforcements and pursued the Chinese, and the raiders made good their retreat to Dong Song.
While the Guangxi Army had been forced to retreat in the October battles, its commanders had not given up all hope of breaking into the Delta. Driven partly by sheer hunger and partly by the knowledge that the French would sooner or later move against Lạng Sơn, the Chinese renewed their efforts to gain a foothold in the Luc Nam valley in December. The action at Ha Ho was the first indication that a major move was afoot. A week after this engagement a force of 12,000 Chinese troops from the Guangxi Army occupied the conical hill of Phja Pò, to the east of Chu, and began to lay out a fortified camp. The Chinese force was under the command of Wang Debang, who had defeated a French column in June 1884 in the Bắc Lệ ambush.
The famished Chinese soldiers plundered all the villages in the area for food, earning the hatred and resentment of the Tonkinese farmers. On 23 December the villagers of Lien Son came to the French headquarters at Chu and alerted Lieutenant-Colonel Donnier to the presence of a Chinese force around Núi Bóp.
The French could not allow a force of 12,000 Chinese to remain at Núi Bop, uncomfortably close to their main base at Chu and threatening the flank of the expeditionary corps when it eventually set off for Lạng Sơn. Brière de l'Isle reinforced the Chu garrison in December, and in January 1885 de Négrier was ordered to take the offensive against the Chinese.
De Négrier's column was drawn from both the 1st and 2nd brigades of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps. It included a marine infantry battalion under the command of chef de bataillon Mahias, de Mibielle's Turco battalion and two companies of Tonkinese riflemen. The column also included the 111th and 143rd line battalions and Jourdy and de Saxcé's batteries.
Lạng Sơn town was occupied by the French in 1885.
XX century The French converted it into a military base considered as important to their other base in Cao Bằng. In 1906, archaeologist Henri Mansuy discovered the Tham Kanh cave near Pho Binh Gia which he named the Ho Binh Gia. He unearthed unique stone implements and human remains. In 1922–25 M. Coloni explored Lạng Sơn province and identified 43 sites related to the ancient Bac Son culture in the mountains.
During World War II, while the Japanese had signed an agreement with Vichy Indo China, they reneged on the Agreement, without waiting for the ink to dry on the accord, and launched an offensive on Vietnam by withdrawing their troops from China. They crossed the Sino-Vietnamese border and entered inside, near the Lạng Sơn railway station. The Japanese attacked on 22 September 1940 and by the 25th they captured Lạng Sơn. Vichy had lodged a protest with Emperor Hirohito for the breach of the agreement signed between the two countries, which resulted in a ceasefire to the hostilities by the evening of 26 September, and Lạng Sơn was reoccupied by the Vichy forces.
After Ho Chi Minh's communist government was established in September 1945, Japanese had surrendered to the British and Indian Army, under the terms of the Potsdam Conference, to the south of the 16th parallel. As strategy, Ho Chi Minh entered into an agreement with the French so that he could face any threat from the Chinese and a Franco-Vietnamese agreement was signed. This provided for a free Vietnam within the French Union and the Indochinese federation. The French launched an offensive against the Viet Minh in October 1947 with Lạng Sơn as their base. The Viet Minh managed to thwart the French Offensive and forced the French to withdraw to Lạng Sơn. The Viet Minh pursue the French Army, they had a decisive victory on Highway 4 and they had to finally withdraw from Lạng Sơn. This marked the beginning of First Indochina War.
In 1950 the Viet Minh took control of the province and the town. During February 1979, the Chinese invaded Vietnam through the border town of Don Dong ( to the north of Long Son town). In this war, which lasted for five days, 600,000 soldiers had descended on Vietnam; Lạng Sơn town was the town that received the thrust of 200,000 soldiers from China and occupied the capital city of the Northern Province. The Vietnamese had the last say as the Vietnamese army was successful in defeating the Chinese army, which bid a retreat. This has achieved the status of a folk lore in the province. The frontier village has remnants of the war on display to the visitors. The border has been rebuilt and brisk trade flourishes between Vietnam and China through this town. During the Chinese invasion in 1959 the Lan Son town was also damaged, it has been rebuilt since then.