Thai Nguyen Province

Thái Nguyên Province is a province situated in mountainous and midland region of North Vietnam. Thái Nguyên is a mountainous, midland province with natural area of 3,542.6 km² and a population of 1,095,400 (as of 2004).

Thái Nguyên is not a large province and accounts only 1.13% of the country's area and 1.41% of its population.

Thái Nguyên borders five provinces: Bắc Cạn to the north, Vĩnh Phúc and Tuyên Quang to the west, and Lạng Sơn and Bắc Giang to the east. Thái Nguyên also borders the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi to the south. As one of socio-economic and political centre of Việt Bắc (the region which comprises Cao Bằng, Bắc Cạn, Lạng Sơn, Thái Nguyên, Tuyên Quang and Hà Giang provinces) in particular and of northeastern mountainous and midland region in general, Thái Nguyên is the gateway for the latter to enter into socio-economic exchange with the Red River delta. The exchange is carried out via road, rail and waterways system centre of which is Thái Nguyên Province.

Along with location as a centre of Việt Bắc, Thái Nguyên also is the focus of all cultures of ethnic groups and the hub of educational and cultural activities of the whole northern mountainous region.

Topographic Features

In Thái Nguyên there are many ranges of mountain running down in south-north direction. The structure of them is made of strongly decayed rocks with many caves and valleys.

In the southwest there is Tam Dao mountain range with the peak of 1,590 metres and many straight cliffs running in northwest-southeast direction.

There are two other mountain ranges: the Ngan Son one running from Bắc Cạn to Vo Nhai district in northeast-southeast direction and the Bac Son one running in northwest-southeast direction. All three ranges are high mountain ranges which help to prevent winter monsoon winds.

Thái Nguyên is a mountainous midland province, nevertheless, the terrain is not as complicated as other mountain and midland provinces. It is an advantage of Thái Nguyên in practising agro- forestry activities compared with other provinces in the region.

Climate

With terrain slopping from high mountains to the low ones and midlands, in term of temperature in winter, Thái Nguyên has 3 climatic subzones:

    * The cold one in northern Vo Nhai district.
    * The temperate one including Dinh Hoa, Phu Luong and southern Vo Nhai districts.
    * The warm one including Dai Tu, Dong Hy, Phu Binh, Pho Yen districts, Thái Nguyên City and Song Cong town.

The difference between the hottest and the coldest months (June: 28.9°C and January: 15.2°C) is 13.7°. Total number of sunny hours a year round is about 1,300 - 1,750 and is rather equally distributed for months in a year.

The climate of Thái Nguyên has two clearly distinguished seasons: the rainy one from May to October and dry one from October to May. The average rainfall per annum is 2,000 to 2,500 mm; it rains most in August and least in January.

Generally speaking, Thái Nguyên's climate is favourable for developing agriculture and forestry.

Soil Structure

The total land area is 3,542.6 km² and can be divided into three classes:

Mountainous land accounts for 48.4% area, the height of which is above 200 m and is formed from the decaying of magma, rocks and sedimentary rock.

The land of this kind is favourable for developing forestry, planting riverhead forest, protection forest and forest of business purpose and also can be used to plant fruit trees and food crop (in some parts) for people in high and mountainous region.

Hilly land accounts for 31.4% area and is made of condensed sand, clay and ancient alluvia. Hill land in some place such as Dai Tu, Phu Luong is 120 to 200 metres high and more with sloping grade of 5° to 20° and is an ideal place for planting industrial crops and perennial fruit trees.

Field land accounts 12.4%, a part of which is scattered along streams and can be easily exposed to severe meteorological conditions (such as sudden floods and droughts) and is difficult to harvest.

Of the total land area, 2,207.89 km² (65.22% of natural area) are used and 1,096.69 km² (30.78% of natural area) are unused. Of unused land area, only 17.14 km² area is cultivable; bare land and deserted hills occupy 412.5 km². A big problem faced by Thái Nguyên Province is to regreen deserted areas.

Administrative Units

Thái Nguyên Province has seven districts (Pho Yen, Phu Binh, Dong Hy, Vo Nhai, Dinh Hoa, Dai Tu, and Phu Luong), one city (Thái Nguyên City), one town (Song Cong Town).

Thái Nguyên has 180 communes, of which 125 are in highland and mountainous regions; the rest is in plains and midlands.

Population and Demographic Distribution

There are many fraternal ethnic groups in Thái Nguyên Province, of which 8 main ethnic groups are Kinh, Tày, Nùng, Sán Dìu, H'Mông, Sán Chay, Dao, and Hoa. Demographic distribution varies greatly: population density in the highlands and mountainous regions is low, while that of urban areas is very high. Vo Nhai District has lowest population density with 72 inhabitants/km² and Thái Nguyên has the highest with 1,260 inhabitants/km².

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Nguyen_Province 
• http://www.thainguyen.gov.vn/vn/
  

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