Cuc Phuong National Park & Wildlife in Ninh Binh
A visual guide from the Ninh Binh travel guide — see all posters in Visual Guides.
An hour or so west of the karsts, Cuc Phuong is Vietnam's oldest national park — a ridge of ancient rainforest protected since the early 1960s, sheltering thousand-year-old trees, butterfly swarms and some of the country's most important wildlife-rescue work. It trades Ninh Binh's postcard scenery for something wilder: trails under a dripping canopy, prehistoric caves, and dawn birdsong — plus gibbon calls from the rescue centre — if you stay the night.
The Rescue Centers
Near the entrance gate, the Endangered Primate Rescue Center cares for langurs, lorises and gibbons confiscated from the wildlife trade — including the Delacour's langur, found almost nowhere else on earth — while neighbouring programs do the same for rare turtles, pangolins and small carnivores. Short guided visits explain the work; between them they are the best wildlife encounter in northern Vietnam, and for many visitors the main reason to come.
Into the Forest
Drive the single park road deeper in to the forest centre and walk the loop to the thousand-year-old cho xanh tree, or climb to the Cave of Prehistoric Man, where ancient human remains were found. Around April and May the park's famous butterflies hatch in drifting white clouds along the road. Trails turn muddy and leech-prone in the wet months, so the drier season from roughly November to April is prime hiking time.