Thanh Hóa in Vietnam is the capital of the Thanh Hóa Province. It has a population of approximately 200,000 spread over an area of 57.9 sq km. Thanh Hóa is situated close to the Red River or Song Hong delta and is around 137 km from the south of Hanoi. It is basically situated right on the banks of a small tributary that flows into the Ma River. Thanh hoa is well connected to Hanoi and you can reach the city by train as well as by road.
One of the most famous tourist places in Thanh Hóa is the Phu Luong reserve. The Phu Luong nature reserve is situated in the districts of Ba Thuoc and Quan Hoa on the north-western side of the province. This nature reserve is situated along two mountain ridges parallel to each other and they run from the north-western side to the south-eastern side. There are several human settlements across the valley but that part is not included in the forest area.
There is a complex limestone ridge within the forest with limited sources of surface water. The Ma River flows through the north-west ridge and is joined by many other smaller rivers and streams on the way. The Pu Luong nature reserve has tropical seasonal forest cover categorized under five different subtypes. The subtypes of forests include the broad leaved sub-montane forest, the lowland broadleaved forest, the lowland broadleaved forest on schist and clayey sandstone, the coniferous submontane forest on limestone and the broadleaved submontane forest on basalt. Each type of forest is on a different altitude and supports different types of plant life and animals.