Ban Gioc – Detian Falls (Chinese: 德天瀑布 & 板約瀑布 - Vietnamese: Thác Bản Giốc & Thác Đức Thiên) are 2 waterfalls on the Quây Sơn River or Guichun River straddling the Sino-Vietnamese border, located in the Karst hills of Daxin County in the Chongzuo prefecture-level city of Guangxi Province, on the Chinese side, and in the district of Trung Khanh District, Cao Bằng province on the Vietnamese side, 272 km north of Hanoi.[Ref 1]
The waterfall drops thirty meters. It is separated into three falls by rocks and trees, and the thundering effect of the water hitting the cliffs can be heard from afar.[Ref 2]
It is currently the 4th largest waterfall along a national border, after Iguazu Falls, Victoria Falls, and Niagara Falls[1] and was one of the crossing points for China’s army during the brief Sino-Vietnamese War. Nearby there is the Tongling Gorge accessible only through a cavern from an adjoining gorge. Rediscovered only recently, it has many species of endemic plants, found only in the gorge, and in the past was used as a hideout by local bandits, whose treasure is occasionally still found in the cliff-side caves.
A road running along the top of the falls leads to a stone marker that demarcates the border between China and Vietnam in French and Chinese. Modern disputes arose as there are discrepancies as to the correlating legal documents on border demarcation and the placement of markers between the French and Qing administrations in the 19th century.[Ref 3]
Disputes regarding the border demarcation at this location were "settled" in 1999 Viet Nam-China Treaty on Land Borderline but questions continue to be raised as some Vietnamese accuse China of relocating the markers in its favor in the Sino-Vietnamese war of 1979.[2] Additional talks were held as late as 2009 to clarify the treaty.[3]
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