Changelog

Shows the rice terraces stepping down toward the valley floor, with Fansipan rising through fog.

The growing year on the terraces and hillsides — when the rice is transplanted and cut, when black cardamom comes out of the forest, and the cold-season vegetables and flowers in between. Shows what's happening this month.

Which chợ phiên is on today, which is next, where it is and how far — Chợ Sa Pa every day, plus Bắc Hà and Mường Hum on Sunday, Y Tý and Cán Cấu on Saturday, Cốc Ly on Tuesday and Sín Chéng on Wednesday. It reads the day for you, so it's never out of date.

When Sa Pa is cut off, it is usually the rain high on the slopes along QL4D, not the rain in town. A new tool reads a weather model's rainfall at three points on the corridor — the Ô Quý Hồ pass, the town and the Mường Hoa valley, and the Móng Sến descent toward Lào Cai — and shows in plain words how much has fallen and what's expected. It is not a road report and not a landslide warning: for whether the road is open, it points to Báo Lào Cai, the national forecaster and the road operator.

Three tools to start, grounded in the town's own concerns: a dry-season water board where neighbours report where the water is off right now, a live frost-and-fog read for the roads and the terraces, and a month-by-month guide to the rice seasons, the monsoon and its landslides, and the winter cold.