The beauty of the greenish blue waters cascading off Ban Gioc Waterfall, a tourist mecca in northern Vietnam on the border with China, is shown in all its glory in a set of pictures snapped by photographer Nong Thanh Toan.

Toan captured the silky waters pouring down the multi-tiered falls on the Quay Son River by using an extended exposure to help capture the natural elegance of the waterfall along the Vietnam-China border.

While some of the falls lie in the Vietnamese province of Cao Bang, 400 kilometers northeast of Hanoi, others pour water nearly 70 meters from one side of the border to the other.

An aerial view of the Quay Son River. Photo: Nong Thanh Toan

The best time to visit the waterfall is from September to December, when the water takes on its characteristic greenish blue hue caused by eroded limestone.

Rainbows are also common during this time period as droplets from the water’s surface dangle in the air.

The Ban Gioc Waterfall is part of the Non Nuoc Cao Bang UNESCO Global Geopark, which boasts Phia Oac and Phia Den, freshwater lake Thang Hen and Nguom Ngao (‘Tiger Cave’) Caves – all ecotourism attractions which bring countless visitors to northern Vietnam every year.

Visitors can also enjoy local delicacies cooked by native ethnic communities and visit the rice and corn paddies, as well as flower fields, flanking the serpentine road leading to the waterfall.

Here are Nong Thanh Toan’s photos of the Ban Gioc Waterfall:

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