Detian-Banyue Falls aka. Ban Gioc Falls

The Vietnamese call it Ban Gioc Falls. The Chinese, due to the 2 sections, have named the one on their side Detian Falls and the one on the Vietnamese side, Banyue Falls. Either way, it is the 4th largest waterfall along a national border after Iguazu Falls (Brazil-Argentina), Victoria Falls (Zambia-Zimbabwe) and Niagara Falls (Canada-USA). It's part of the border separating Vietnam's Cao Bang province from China's Guangxi province.
(more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detian_Waterfall)

For those who follow Hong Kong's TVB dramas, Detian Waterfall was the waterfall that served as one of the many stunning backdrops to the 2001 TV drama series Country Spirit (aka Plain Love III). It starred Gordon Lam, Charmaine Sheh and Sharon Tang, with the story revolving around winemaking business during the early 20th century in rural China. Detian waterfall was one of the many filming locations in Guangxi province featured in the drama. Perhaps the drama posters below will refresh your memory....



Join me to visit Detian waterfall this Merdeka Weekend
(China & Vietnam Tour Aug 29 - Sep 5, 2010)
Itinerary at
http://www.facebook.com/?tid=1502110481070&sk=messages#!/event.php?eid=123336081022910

My Vietnamese tour operator forwarded me some photos showing the waterfall from the Vietnamese perspective....


















As for the Chinese perspective, here are some photos found on wikipedia.org and chinadaily.com ...

China's Ethnic Minorities

I was forwarded an email that was making its rounds on cyberspace. In it were family photos of 55 ethnic groups of China. It seems the photographer went around China to capture them in each of their unique and brilliant traditional costumes. I decided to paste them here in my blog for posterity and as aid to identification of ethnic groups. My thanks to the photographer for the wonderful work done.

Actually, the People's Republic of China officially lists 56 ethnic groups, one of which is the majority Han Chinese, the same group carrying the 'Chinese' tag as found in Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, USA, Canada and all over the world where there is a Chinese community or a Chinatown.

Also due to political reasons, the PRC includes the Ethnic Minorities in Taiwan which PRC terms as 'Gaoshan' people. They are the indigenous people found only in Taiwan and not found on mainland China.

Some of the ethnic groups form the majority population in countries neighbouring PRC: Mongol (Mongolia), Korean (North & South Korea), Kazak (Kazakhstan), Kirgiz (Kyrgyzstan), Tajik (Tajikistan), Jing (Vietnam), Russian (Russia) and Ozbek (Uzbekistan).

For more info, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_China

Photos below arranged top to bottom according to decreasing population size.