An ‘exodus’ has taken place in Sa Pa, a travel hotspot in the northern province of Lao Cai, with families and herds of cattle leaving the mountains for lowlands to avoid the biting cold of the current winter.

However, now is also the start of the peak tourism season in Sa Pa because travelers wish to enjoy the cold temperatures, which have fallen as low as three degrees Celsius.

It is currently common to see herds of cattle and people walking along National Highway 4A in Sa Pa District to lower areas such as Coc San and Tong Sanh in Bat Xat District to avoid the winter cold.

However, the temperature in Coc San and Tong Sanh is not warm at all, at eight degrees Celsius.

It takes them a day of walking to migrate to lower areas, and the migrants have to set up temporary huts on the uninhabited tableland in forests to wait out the cold in their hometown.

Migration is the most effective method to help cattle and weak people such as children and the elderly survive the winter temperatures in Lao Cai, according to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of the province.

After over 3,000 cattle in Sa Pa died from the piercing cold of 2010 and 2011, locals began migrating in the winter of 2013, and the number of dead cattle fell to only 100 animals, according to the Economics Department of Sa Pa District.

Giang A Lu, 38, in Sa Pa, said his family had five buffaloes, but four of them died in the winter of 2012.

It was so cold that he could not find fresh grass for his cattle to survive.

Now, he takes his only buffalo that survived 2012, which now has a baby, to Coc San for slightly warmer weather.

“My younger brother and my children follow me to the area. Sometimes it falls to one degree Celsius over there.

“The migration is not only for cattle, but also children and the elderly.

“Only those who go to school have to stay there.”

Giang A Tinh, who is almost 80, said he has to flee to the lowlands to avoid the cold.

“I can’t stay up there because it is so cold. We will only return to our home when the winter is over,” Tinh said.

The luggage of the migrants includes only mosquito nets, blankets, clothes and other daily necessities.

Migrants often join together and choose a flat forest area with a stream running through it to build huts. They grow manioc at the new site to cover the costs of staying far from home because it often takes two months to grow and harvest the plant.

Ma Do A, 37, who is temporarily living in Coc San, was preparing to go into the forest to trap wild mice for meat with his son.

He said he once had four buffaloes but they all died three years ago. He later got a loan from a local bank and bought a female buffalo. The animal had a baby, and he took the pair down to Coc San for the winter. Each migrant family takes two to five buffaloes with them.

“We often join the cattle of our families into a big herd of dozens of animals. Otherwise, buffaloes may refuse to walk dozens of kilometers in a day.

“We choose the most mature buffalo to lead the herd. Other animals only hear the sound of the metal bell hung on the neck of the leader and just follow it,” said Giang Thi Su, 32.

A winter migration often lasts for three months on average.

Migrants have only rice, forest vegetables and tofu for daily meals. Pork and dried fish are a ‘luxury’ for migrants. To improve nutrition, they hunt birds and mice for meat.

“The only income here is from manioc cultivation. We can buy pork sometimes, but not often,” said a migrant.

Ha Thi Te, 56, a migrant, said, “We can’t grow any crops or trees at our home up in the mountainous area in Sa Pa.”

The weather in places like Sa Pa has changed in recent years and locals must migrate to avoid the cold and save their cattle, admitted Nguyen Anh Tuan, director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Lao Cai.

He added that local authorities began instructing people to prepare for migration in August this year to avoid the cold.

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