Xam Neua is the capital city of Houaphan Province, Laos

Laos

Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...

, located in the northeast of the country. Xam Neua is one of the country's least visited provincial capitals by Western tourists.

Demographics

Residents are mostly Lao, Vietnamese and Hmong, along with some Tai Dam, Tai Daeng and Tai Lu. The predominant language is Lao

Lao language

Lao or Laotian is a tonal language of the Tai–Kadai language family. It is the official language of Laos, and also spoken in the northeast of Thailand, where it is usually referred to as the Isan language. Being the primary language of the Lao people, Lao is also an important second language for...

 with minorities of Vietnamese

Vietnamese language

Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...

 and Hmong

Hmong language

Hmong or Mong is the common name for a dialect continuum of the West Hmongic branch of the Hmong–Mien/Miao–Yao language family spoken by the Hmong people of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, northern Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos...

. French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 is still spoken by a minority of people as a legacy of the French colonial era and is learnt by younger populations and used in public works and government.

Tourism

Several guesthouses are located in Xam Neua. There are irregular flights into/from Vientiane to Xam Neua (the airport's name is Nathon); presently operated by Lao Capricorn; see http://www.laocapricornair.net/schedule.php.

Facts

Xam Neua is located in a valley in the Houaphan Province. In the early morning hours women wash clothes in the river flowing through the city. An elementary school is located near the main bridge crossing this river. At 5:45 am and pm each day there are public addresses from loudspeakers atop a tower on the school playground, expounding on the communist life and philosophy. These addresses are usually accompanied by Lao music. It is reputed there is a Communist re-education center located in Xam Neua, and that it was the Pathet Lao

Pathet Lao

The Pathet Lao was a communist political movement and organization in Laos, formed in the mid-20th century. The group was ultimately successful in assuming political power after the Laotian Civil War. The Pathet Lao were always closely associated with Vietnamese communists...

 capital during the Secret War Battle of Lima Site 85

Battle of Lima Site 85

The Battle of Lima Site 85, also called Battle of Phou Pha Thi, was fought as part of a military campaign waged during the Vietnam War and Laotian Civil War by the Vietnam People’s Army and the Pathet Lao, against airmen of the United States Air Force 1st Combat Evaluation Group, elements of the ...

 (LS-85) 11 March 1968. It is near the Pathet Lao refuges in the Viengxay caves

Viengxay caves

The Viengxay caves in Houaphanh Province of North-Eastern Laos are an extensive network of caves in limestone mountains. Four-hundred eighty of these caves were used by the Pathet Lao during the Second Indochina War to shelter from American bombardment....

, which the Lao government hopes to promote as a tourism destination similar to the Củ Chi tunnels near Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, and the Killing Fields

The Killing Fields

The Killing Fields are a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War ....

 Memorial

Choeung Ek

Choeung Ek , the site of a former orchard and Chinese graveyard about 17 km south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is the best-known of the sites known as The Killing Fields, where the Khmer Rouge regime executed about 17,000 people between 1975 and 1979. Mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were...

 near Phnom Penh in Cambodia. It is also near the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area, .