Dong Ha Local Customs

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85% of the 86 million people living in Vietnam are Vietnamese. An additional 800,000 are Chinese with the remaining 11 million divided into some 52 other ethnic minority groups with most living in the mountains of the northern and central highlands. Here, west along Highway 9 past the Rockpile, you come into the homeland of the Bru Van-Kieu - some 56,000. Their stilted homes can be seen on either side of the road. Swidden farming - a more sedentary form of slash/burn agriculture - is in evidence with new fields being formed with local forest burns. The best former lands of the Bru - the plateau of Khe Sanh - has been declared a New Economic Zone. There the new coffee plantations are all farmed by Viets.