老街市
As Lào Cai Province is mountainous and still developing, its natural environment is relatively environmentally unspoilt. This means that its potential as an ecotourism destination among Vietnamese and foreigners is still intact. It has now become popular and a novel experience among both Chinese and Vietnamese as a tourist destination, particularly a "sexualized and sensualised" border town of Lào Cai. Special border travel packages for tourists, arranged between China and Vietnam under the present political set up in Vietnam, has relaxed regulations permitting tourists to visit selected locations under conducted tours to places in Northern Vietnam and particularly to the provincial headquarter of Lào Cai; Lào Cai is the last stop before crossing into China on way to Kunming across the border, which lies at the end of the train line to China. Since then the Chinese tourists visiting Lào Cai on a one-day trip or two days trip including the hill station town of Sa Pa in the province (a popular five trip is also organized covering Lào Cai, Hanoi, Hạ Long and Hai Phong) recorded a quantum jump, from 4200 in 1995 to 176,310 in 2002. Lào Cai is popular among Chinese travellers (males, in particular) who are said to be "obsessed with "Zhao Xiaojie" ("looking for misses") for its sex market. A male tourist from China made a mention: "There is a common saying in China: Vietnam sacrifices one generation of young women for the well-being of the next three generations."