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The Highlands

The highlands and plateaus enclosing the Red River Delta contrast sharply with the plains region both in topography and in level of development. The sparsely populated forested highlands, which cover about 85 percent of North Vietnamese territory, are inhabited mainly by Mongoloid tribal minority groups. Typically, these peoples live in small villages set in forested clearings. Settlements are found both in the valley bottoms and at higher levels, in areas where the production of rice and other crops supports relative large villages in some localities.

One branch of the mountains and highlands, projecting southward from the plateau in Yunnan Province, extends along the country's entire border with Laos and, except at the northeastern tip of Laos, separates the Red River basin from that of the Mekong River. Elevations along this branch range from 3,000 to 10,000 feet, with North Vietnam's highest peak, Fan Si Pan, rising to 10,308 feet, in the extreme northweE\t and about 20 miles southwest of Lao Cai.

The southern portion of the branch, known as the Chaine Annamitique, continues southward along South Vietnam's boundary wi.th Laos and Cambodia. Another branch, unnamed but sometimes referred to as the Northern Highlands, extends along the border with China, terminatirig in a series of islands northeast of Haiphong in the Gulf of Tonkin.

After the defeat of the French in 1954, special autonomous administrative zones were established in the northern mountains such as (i) Khu tu tri Thai-Meo (Thai-Meo Autonomous Zone) covering most parts of the present northwestern areas, and (ii) Khu tu tri Viet bac (Viet bac Autonomous Zone) encompassing the present northeastern zone. Many social and economic changes were introduced in the mountains. A series of successive mass mobilization campaigns were conducted to eliminate illiteracy and provide education, suppress shifting cultivation and sedentarise supposedly nomadic minorities, as well as expand the area under cultivation, introduce modern farming technology, and establish agricultural cooperatives.