Thanks for the update Michael! I’ll update the content for everyone to see.

Hello,
We did this route in January 2024 and can say it changed a lot.
1. There are no green buses in Hekouzhen. You need a Taxi to get to the busstation.
2. The ticket hall is completly abandoned.
3. There is only one bus to Nansha at 6:40 am
4. The road is well maintained and no problem to get there
5. We had to change the Bus in Nansha.

Michael

Thanks so much for the update! Much appreciated

Hello Sarah,
Thanks a lot for the information provided.
I did the trip on 15th of November, but due to chinese internet restrictions
I could not post my comment earlier…
I just want to add some deatails and recommendations, if you want to be sure
to catch the 9 AM bus after crossing the border:
One should arrive at the Lao Cai border around 30 minutes before they open (6:30)
to be the first in the queue (I arrived 6:45 and already 10 people before me).
On the chinese side you have to fill a form (I did not and had to queue again),
so better have a pen with you and you can fill it while queuing there.
Get some money for the bus changed instead of searching for an ATM (that works) like me.
(I ended up taking a motorbike taxi, searching for an ATM in Hekou and then directly went to the bus station arriving there 8:50)
And keep in mind that in Xinjie there is no ATM taking foreign cards, so find one when the bus stops on the way, best in Nansha (also named Yuanyang).
By the way – most of the terraces had been irrigated already.

Fernando, thanks so much for the update! Glad your trip is going smoothly, Sarah

Forgot to mention this travel information is from yesterday: August 16th 2019.

Thank you very much for this detailed post. I followed it to plan the same plan as yours. Only difference I managed to travel Sapa (Vietnam) to Xinjie (China) in the same day, with very tight connections. Departed from Sapa at 6am local time and arrived to Xinjie at 3pm local time within the same day.
FYI I catch a direct bus Hekou-Xinjie with a quick 10-min stop at Nasha. Bus departed Hekou 9:00 and took 6 hours to get to Xinjie.

I for one would love to visit in January, when the fields have been irrigated and are full of water. The light playing on the water would be amazing.