Visiting Sapa, definitely must roam once in Cat Cat village. In recent years, Cat Cat village has become a destination for tourists when traveling to Sapa 2 days 1 night or Sapa 3 days 2 nights. Although nowadays Sapa has turned into a noisy and crowded town, however, Cat Cat village still remains the peaceful beauty of wild nature and preserves a lot of traditional cultures of H’mong people.
The location of Cat Cat village:
Cat Cat village belongs to San Sa Ho commune, Sapa district, Lao Cai province. From the center of Sapa, following the road towards Fansipan Mountain about 3km, visitors will find this village. Especially, at Cat Cat center, there is a convergence of 3 streams including: Golden stream, Silver stream and Tien Sa stream.
The origin of the name:
Cat Cat village has been the habitat of H’Mong ethnic group for many centuries and it is formed in the 19 th century. In Cat Cat village, there is a beautiful waterfall which was named as “CatScat” by French. Thus, from the beginning of the twentieth century, the French discovered and chose this place as a resort for high-position officials. From that, the H’Mong ethnic group has located along the waterfall which is called as Cat Cat today. Nowadays, there are nearly 80 households living here, some are located along the stone road in the middle of the village, others are scattered on the slopes.
Exploring the life of H’Mong ethnic group:
Cat Cat is a lovely village hidden in the mist at the foot of Hoang Lien Son Mountain, existing between the majestic scenery of the nature with the mountains and forests of the Northwest. Coming to Cat Cat, tourists not only admire the beauty of wild nature, but also learn about the traditional and unique customs of the ethnic minority.
H’ Mong people in Cat Cat village mainly live on cultivating rice on terraced fields and traditional trades such as weaving, silver carving and forging tools. These traditional trades have been passed from one generation to the next through many years. If you walk through the central market, you will find these fine handicraft products such as brocade, sophisticated silver necklace. The sophisticated products not only show skills but also contain the sentiment of the Northwest’s people. Or walking around the village, there is no difficult to meet young women weaving while chit chatting.
Leisure activities in Cat Cat village:
Visitors will explore a common house of H’Mong people. This house covers 3 layers which are made of timber. The house’s pillars are put on a square or circular stone wall. It has three doors, the main door is located in the middle and two side doors. The main door is only opened when the owner has big parties such as weddings, funerals or New Year holiday. Each house usually includes: a private space, a sleeping place, a reception area, a storeroom and a kitchen. Moreover, coming to Cat Cat, visitors still visit the traditional handicraft product exhibiton of H’Mong ethnic people.
Visitors also have a chance to witness one traditional custom of Cat Cat village. Cat Cat is a place that still preserving a lot of unique customs that other regions do not have, such as dragging wife. When a boy falls in love with a girl, he will organize a party to invite his friends, asks them to make a plan to "pull" the girl unexpectedly and keeps her for three days. Then, if the girl agrees to become his wife, he will organize the official wedding ceremony. Otherwise, they will drink alcohol together and everything go back to normal as nothing happened.
