High mountains, flat plains and most other landforms in between

Topographically, Vietnam is mostly hills and densely forested mountains. Most of its population lives on the 20% of the country that is level ground. Forty percent of its 331,688 square kilometres is mountainous, and the remaining forty percent is hills. Forests cover 75% of the country. Approximately 25% of land is under cultivation.

Vietnam has five main land regions. The North consists of the Northern Highlands and the Red River Delta, and the South is made up of the Annamite Range, the Coastal Lowlands, and the Mekong Delta.

The North

The northern highlands
The northwest area is rocky, mountainous terrain. Much of it is inaccessible, but that which can be reached is often spectacularly beautiful. There are many rivers, including the intermediate levels of the Red River and its major tributary, the Black River: lakes, both natural and reservoirs, waterfalls and caves are abundant. Fan Si Pan, Viet Nam's highest mountain, is accessible, but only for those who are fit enough to undertake the arduous trek to and from its summit. The northwest is home to many different ethnic groups.

The north-eastern mountains are lower and mainly composed of limestone. At its western extremity it borders on the Red River Delta, and with China to the north and east. It is more remote and less visited that the northwest. Consequently, the ethnic groups living in the mountains along the border are unaccustomed to meeting tourists.

The Red River Delta
The wide fertile plain of the Red River Delta has been the favoured entry point for invaders from the North over the centuries. To the south, separated by a narrow coastal plain and an archipelago of rocky 'karst' limestone islands, lies the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea. The coastline is mostly muddy in the delta area and rocky around Ha Long, but there are a few reasonable beaches, such as those on Cat Ba Island, near Hai Phong, and at Tra Co, close to Mong Cai and the Chinese border.

There are several other areas of karst limestone in the north central area of Vietnam, notably in Tam Hoc and Hoa Lu, and the area further south inland from Dong Hoi that contains the remarkable Phong Nha Caves. Not yet fully explored, Phong Nha extends over at least 35km of underground passages: during June, 2003, the caves and the area around them became Vietnam’s fifth World Heritage Area.

The South

The Coastal Lowlands
The northern extremity of the coastal lowland area is marked by granite mountains carrying the Hai Van Pass that descends to Danang. Also in the Da Nang area are the famous Marble Mountains, a further example of karst limestone formations. South of Da Nang, the usable area is a strip of flat land of varying width running the length of the coast, broken only by a mountainous area around Nha Trang and ending at the northern edge of the Mekong Delta

Most of central Vietnam’s population lives on the coastal lowlands in towns and villages linked by the railway and Highway 1.

The Annamite Range
Further inland,the Annamite Range is a ridge of mountains backed by Giai Truong Son, a plateau of red, highly fertile volcanic soil. Dominated by the highland town of Da Lat, the highland plateau is long, thin and very varied in its climate, topography, history and etnicity. It shares a border with Laos and, further south, with Cambodia.

The Mekong Delta
The extreme south of Vietnam is a flat plain, mainly composed of the vast Mekong Delta, although there are some outcrops of limestone karst formations in and around Ha Tien, close to the border with Cambodia, and some limestone islands near the coast. Further out in the Gulf of Thailand, Phu Quoc is a large granite island with a mountainous forested area to the north.