As usual, when peach and apricot blossoms come into bloom and herald the arrival of the spring fairy, thousands of tourists enthusiastically flock to Sapa to enjoy the Hmong horn festival and indulge themselves in delightful festivities in the Fansipan Heaven Gate Opening Festival.
Officially opened on February 13 (or Lunar January 9 of the Year of the Earth Pig), Fansipan Heaven Gate Opening Festival at Sun World Fansipan Legend (Sapa) is draped in the most uplifting spring vibe, with boundless floral splurges and many other exciting and meaningful festivities for Buddhist followers in Lunar New Year. The recent Fansipan Heaven Gate Opening festival has emerged to be a new favorite of visitors and the locals alike. Each day, the festival allures thousands of arrivals to come admiring the scene and Buddha’s greatness.
Fansipan Heaven Gate Opening Festival seems to wrap up the whole northwestern spring in the mere compound of Sun World Fansipan Legend, through beaming peach blossom trees along the road, artificial setting and adept layouts of fresh flowers.
This year, the Spring Path in the Fansipan is sprinkled not just with eternally enchanting Sapa peach blossoms and plum blossoms, but also thousands of tulips, camellias, chrysanthemums, geranium, scarlet sage or azaleas… blossom radiantly and proudly, further enriching the spring outings of enthused visitors.
In the midst of vibrancy and atmospheric fascination of the northwestern highlands in springtime, visitors feel afloat in the melodic cascade of folk tunes and graceful dances of unheard and unseen religious art performances at the courtyard of the cable car departure terminal and atop the Fansipan…
Lucky red sheets doled out to Buddhist followers and visitors or idle mutters of scriptures from monks echo through the air of nothingness, under the sunny azure sky, engendering an obvious sense of inner peace and serenity and adding solemness and divine meaning to your New Year pilgrimage.
The journey to the sacred Fansipan is stil garnished with countless surprises and pleasure as visitors are invited to experiences and the best cultural quintessence of the northwestern highlands through Hmong horn contests, folk games, signature delicacies and the local marketplace of northwestern ethnicities.
To sip some newly brewed liquor and feel the aromatic spicy aftertaste thrusted down the throat, join ethnic lads in a swine race, blindfolded pig catches or shrieking laughter, engage yourselves in the making of rice buns and baby green rice cakes or just drop in a colorful highland vendors of the natives and fully relish the rustic and enchanting simplicity of the ethnic life.
The pilgrimage and outing on the sacre Fansipan this year can even be more rewarding as Buddhists and visitors are allowed for a glance at the sarira relics stored within the Grand Amitabha Buddha Statue – the tallest copper statue of Vietnam to pray for a prosperous and peaceful new year. The Buddhist sarira was dedicated by Burmese monks to VInh Nghiem Pagoda, and then donated by Vinh Nghiem Pagoda to the Grand Buddha Statue on the Fansipan. For Buddhists and visitors, their New Year pilgrimage to the sacred Fansipan, a gathering place of national energies, which involves a stroll along the Alahat Path and admiration for the fairylike spring landscape and Buddhist statues in purely Vietnamese pagoda to convey their wishes for peace reigning all over the country is indeed a dream come true for the soul.