The northern Vietnamese box turtle C. g. galbinifrons was described by Bourret in 1939, but it took nearly 40 years until the first specimens were imported to Europe and the United States.

The most notable difference to the nominate race is the distinct plastral pattern, where only smaller black blotches (sometimes none at all) occur.

This is also substantiated by the finding of intergradation zones in north-central Vietnam, where hybrid populations of C. g. galbinifrons and C. g. bourreti are known to exist.

[11] The status of C. picturata is uncertain, while this is the morphologically and phenotypically the most distinct variety, authors[12] treat it as a subspecies of C. galbinifrons again.

All populations of Indochinese box turtle are in decline and the conservation situation is made more acute by the diversity of subspecies.