Ha Giang to Quan Ba Heaven Gate
The first leg of the loop: forty kilometres out of town and 1,015 m of climbing to the gate above Tam Son.
39.8 km to the Heaven Gate
What to ride
Three classes of machine actually rented in Ha Giang. Each shows the model offered by the most rental shops - the one you are most likely to find free.
The road covers 1014 m between its lowest and highest points. Nothing extreme, but engine size does make itself felt on a road like this.
What the road is like
From Ha Giang the road climbs for 37.8 km and gains 1015 m to the 1124 m high point. Then 2 km of descent and 135 m down, at an average 6.6%. There is no straightening it out: 39.8 km of road cover 23.1 km in a straight line, and 31 turns sharper than 60° come one after another.
Measured 2026-09-07 from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) and SRTM elevation data.
Where to stop
Places marked on OpenStreetMap by people who have been there. The numbers match the diagram and the elevation profile above.
- 1Bac Sum Passviewpoint · 21.8 km from the start of the roadright by the road
- 2Thach Son Thanviewpoint · 32.5 km from the start of the road128 m off the road
- 3Quan Ba Heaven Gateviewpoint · 37.8 km from the start of the road77 m off the road
- 4nui Co Tienviewpoint · 39.6 km from the start of the road65 m off the road
Know before you go
This is the first leg only, measured from the edge of town to the Heaven Gate viewpoint. It ends at the top: the road goes on into the loop, but that part is not measured here.
Scope of the measurement
Fuel is not a problem on this leg: the nearest station is 200 m from the road, and the map shows others along the way.
OpenStreetMap data, may be incomplete
When to ride
Ha Giang is the wettest part of this site in summer: July alone brings 545 mm, fourteen times the February figure. On a mountain road that is the difference between a ride and a wait.
Monthly rainfall in mm. July gets 545 mm — 14 times more than February with its 39 mm.
Long-term monthly averages for Ha Giang, Vietnam Institute for Building Science and Technology.
Where to get one in Ha Giang
More about the road
Photos: after Thái Nhi (public domain), Wikimedia Commons.