Describe a beautiful natural place you have visited, such as a mountain, river or forest.

I’d like to talk about a stunning mountain lake called Sa Pa, in the north of Vietnam, right near the border with China. It’s a highland town surrounded by terraced rice fields and rugged peaks, and it honestly looks like something off a postcard. I went there about two years ago, in late autumn, when the weather was cool but not freezing and the rice had just been harvested.

The first thing that struck me was the landscape. Everywhere you look, there are layers of green and gold rice terraces carved into the hillsides, almost like giant staircases leading up into the clouds. In the early morning, a thin mist hangs over the valley, so the mountains appear half-hidden, which gives the whole place a kind of mystical, otherworldly atmosphere. The sky was incredibly clear later in the day, and at sunset the whole valley was bathed in a soft, orange glow.

I spent most of my time hiking along narrow paths that wound through small villages. We passed waterfalls cascading down black rock, bamboo forests whispering in the breeze, and water buffalo grazing lazily in the fields. The air felt unbelievably fresh and crisp, a world away from the pollution and noise of the city. Even the sounds were different: instead of traffic, I could hear birds calling and the distant murmur of the river below.

Being there, I felt both peaceful and humbled. On the one hand, it was incredibly relaxing, almost therapeutic; on the other, the sheer scale of the mountains made my everyday worries seem insignificant. I came back feeling recharged, with a clearer head and a deeper appreciation of how powerful and fragile nature really is.