[2] Yên Bái's history is important under the French colony, particularly the subsequent "Yên Bái mutiny", an uprising of Vietnamese soldiers in the French colonial army on 10 February 1930 in collaboration with civilian supporters who were members of the Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (VNQDD, the Vietnamese Nationalist Party).

The Kinh people, who form the majority population of the country, settled here a long time ago and in union with the local minority tribes established themselves in the region and developed cultivation practices.

The Kinh people's ancestry is traced to the Hải Dương Pham Ba Luc for nine generations till date and a monument erected in 1937 in Doc village in Hong Commune is highly revered as an ancestral home.

[13] Initially, military resistance to French rule came through the Cần Vương movement led by Tôn Thất Thuyết and Phan Đình Phùng, which sought to install the boy Emperor Hàm Nghi at the head of an independent nation.

This led to their leadership group taking the risk of staging a large scale military attack in the Red River Delta in Northern Vietnam.

It was only on 10 February 1931 that VNQDĐ could, in collaboration with civilian supporters, launch the Yên Bái mutiny, an uprising of Vietnamese soldiers in the French colonial army.

Yên Bái and Thái Nguyên were key military posts of the Việt Minh, which were supplied with arms from China to fight the French during this War.

[15] On 9 February 1930 part of the 4th Regiment of Tonkinese Rifles stationed at Yên Bái mutinied against their French officers but were suppressed by loyal troops from the same unit.

The attack was the largest disturbance against the colonisation of Vietnam since the Cần Vương monarchist movement of the late 19th century.

The aim of the revolt was to inspire a wider uprising among the general populace in an attempt to overthrow the colonial regime and establish independence.

The Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (VNQDĐ, the Vietnamese Nationalist Party) had previously attempted to engage in clandestine activities to undermine French rule, but increasing French scrutiny on their activities led to their leadership group taking the risk of staging a large scale military attack in the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam.

In 1996, another bronze jar was discovered along with the 2000-year-old remains of a 6-year-old girl on Choi Mountain in the commune of Hợp Minh, Trấn Yên District.

[19] It has a capacity of 3 to 3.9 billion cubic meters of water and its original intention was to run the Thác Bà hydroelectric plant, one of the first large hydropower projects in Vietnam.

[19] Thác Bà Lake has changed the climatic pattern in the western districts of the province, to a moderate condition from its hot and dry status.

The 20,293 hectares (78.35 sq mi) conservation area Mu Cang Chai Species / Habitat Conservation Area (MCC SHCA) was established in 2004 to protect the endangered mountain wildlife in Cang Chai district on the border of Lào Cai province.

Cooperatives services include the production of black tea (manufacturing and processing), farm and forestry, fertilizers, transportation, electric supply in rural areas, and so forth.

In terms of agricultural products, main crops in the province include tea, cinnamon, glutinous rice, grapefruit, orange, taro and fish.

The dissemination work carried out by the Extension Offices have involved: knowledge transfer of technological advances; shifting in the structure of plants, animals and crops; intensive farming of hybrid rice strains; changing one-crop rice fields to two-crop ones; cultivation on sloping soil; raising high-quality chickens and so forth.

[29] 25 key agricultural extension programmes have been developed to meet different growing periods in different terrains namely low lying and mountainous land.

Intensive farming of winter maize on two-rice-crop fields, intensive farming of hybrid rice strains in mountainous district of Mu Cang Chai, planting high-quality rice, sugar cane, coffee strains, raising chickens, planting forests have also been adopted by the farmers [29] In all, 33 ores and minerals are currently mined in the numerous quarries in Lục Yên District, out of which 23 are valid minerals, including gemstones.

Among these ores and minerals are: apatite, biotite, calcite, chlorite group, chondrodite, corundum, danburite, elbaite, fluor-cannilloite, graphite, humite, lepidolite, varieties of microcline such as amazonite, muscovite, olivine, orthoclase, paragonite, pargasite, phlogopite, pyrite, quartz and smoky quartz, rossmanite, rutile, schorl, spinel, titanite and tourmaline; gemstones such as rubies, spinel, and tourmaline.

A village festival showcasing ethnic minorities, a trade fair, a costume show, sports and traditional art competitions are also held.

The site that the lake now lies in was the historic scene in 1285 AD during the Thu Vat Battle that took place under the command of Trần Nhật Duật against Mongolian invaders.

[36][37] The Mong Son Grotto, which housed the Yên Bái Party Committee during the anti-American resistance is located at the centre of this lake.

Yên Bái lies on the railway that runs northwest from the capital and largest city in the north of the country, Hanoi, to the border town of Lào Cai and into Yunnan in China.

The festival rites performed present an array of events starting with an invitation to the living and the dead, royal offerings, a procession of the palanquins of the Tutelary God and Holy Mother.

[40] The Grapefruit flower festival is held in September at Kha Linh communal house, Dai Minh commune, Yên Bình District, featuring the Kha Linh Communal House, grapefruit flower offerings, community tours to the Ngoi Tu cultural village and traditional sports.

[41] Other places of interest to visit are the Mu Cang Chai species and bio-landscape reserve, the western region of white Bauhilia flower and the Giang Spring.