In Măng Đen, in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, part of a tea plantation is turning purple this season. The setting is the Đông Trường Sơn tea hill (Đồi chè Đông Trường Sơn) along National Route 24. Around 1,000 mua flowers originally introduced from Australia were planted here and have been blooming purple since early August. At an elevation of about 1,200 meters, the cool highlands now offer a view where a band of deep purple flowers overlaps with green tea leaves, and local newspapers report that more people are coming to take photos. For anyone planning a trip, September falls within the valuable window while the flowers are still blooming.
What’s blooming purple at the Đông Trường Sơn tea hill?
The purple flowers are a variety of melastoma known in Vietnamese as ‘hoa mua,’ specifically a species introduced from Australia. Newspapers report the scientific name as Melastoma affine. The plantation is run by Nguyễn Thị Hằng’s Đông Trường Sơn Clean Tea Cooperative. Hằng’s family moved from Hanoi to Kon Plông in 2018, looking for a place to invest in agriculture, and began growing tea there. They planted mua flowers as a crowd-drawing feature starting in 2022 — originally around 1,000 plants — but local papers report that some died off due to insufficient care. Over the following years, the surviving plants grew into flowers taller than a person.
How the native mua differs in appearance from the Australian variety
Wild mua already grow naturally in Vietnam’s mountainous areas. The variety introduced from Australia is a close relative, but local media explain that its petals are thicker and its purple color deeper. The plants also reach 3 to 3.5 meters tall, rising like a tunnel of flowers above eye level. The height difference between the low green of the tea plants and the deep purple floating above it creates a three-dimensional effect that flat flower fields can’t match. It’s this height that makes the wall of flowers wrap around the background in photos posted on social media.
Where is Măng Đen, and why are more photo spots appearing there?
Măng Đen is a highland resort area that used to belong to Kon Plông District in the former Kon Tum Province. Following the 2025 administrative reorganization, the provincial boundaries changed, and it is now organized as Kon Plông commune (xã Kon Plông) in Quảng Ngãi Province. ‘Măng Đen’ is used less as an official administrative name than as a common name for the highland tourism area around Kon Plông. The tea plantation itself is located in Vi Choong hamlet (thôn Vi Choong) in Kon Plông. Less crowded than Da Lat and known for its cool year-round climate, this area — often called ‘the second Da Lat’ — has now gained a photogenic flower spot as well.
Access and the push toward becoming a tourist destination
The gateway to Măng Đen is National Route 24. VnExpress reports that authorities are aiming to designate Măng Đen as a National Tourist Area (Khu du lịch quốc gia). Nearby hills also have spots with cafés attached, and this flower destination adds one more reason to visit a highland area that’s becoming increasingly accessible. Compared with a roundup of15 stunning Southeast Asian sights that included Ninh Binh, Ha Giang, and Hoi An,you can see a different kind of scenery here — not the dramatic power of Ha Giang’s rugged rock mountains, but the gentle, Central-Highlands-style composition of rolling tea fields and flowers.
Măng Đen’s purple spots aren’t limited to just one place
News coverage highlights both the Đông Trường Sơn tea hill and another nearby hill side by side. If you’re planning an itinerary, it’s easier to plan around visiting both together.
| Spot | Location | Flower type | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Đông Trường Sơn tea hill | Vi Choong hamlet, Kon Plông | Australian mua (originally around 1,000 plants) | A band of deep purple flowers against the green tea fields. Plants 3–3.5m tall |
| Tiên Nhân Hill (Đồi Tiên Nhân) | Kon Tu Rằng village | Native mua (purple to pink) | Attached café. Overlooks terraced rice fields |
Tiên Nhân Hill has long been known for photos looking down over terraced rice fields from its café, and now the purple of native mua adds to the view. If the tea plantation side offers a ‘wall of flowers,’ this one offers ‘rice fields seen through flowers.’ Since the two spots produce different kinds of shots, you can capture two compositions of the same purple in a single day. In terms of catching a seasonal subject while sitting down with a drink, it’s the kind of shot you can get without waiting for the full moon —5 cafés in Hanoi for Mid-Autumn Festival photos— a way of enjoying the season that overlaps with this spot.
Quick guide: best season, admission, and access
We’ve put together a table of information you can use for planning, based on what could be verified. The reported size in hectares differs between outlets — Thanh Nien says 40ha, VnExpress says 30ha — so please treat the area figure as a rough guide only.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Location | Đông Trường Sơn tea hill (Kon Plông, Quảng Ngãi Province, Măng Đen), along National Route 24 |
| Best flower season | Early August through September (VnExpress says mid-September, Thanh Nien says through the end of September) |
| Admission | Free (per Thanh Nien) |
| Elevation | About 1,200 meters |
| Operator | Đông Trường Sơn Clean Tea Cooperative (led by Nguyễn Thị Hằng) |
| Access | Along National Route 24. Accessible from Quảng Ngãi city or Kon Tum city |
When and what time to go for the best chance of good photos
Right now, in mid-September, we’re in the latter half of the blooming period. The flowers don’t necessarily bloom all at once, so checking the latest flowering status on social media right before you go can reduce the chance of a wasted trip. Clouds or fog can roll into the highlands during the day, so aiming for the early morning, when the light is soft, makes the flower colors easier to capture. Even though admission is free, this is a working tea plantation, so please follow proper photo etiquette, such as not stepping on the tea plants while moving between rows.
Along with your flower photos, take home some local tea leaves
What sets this plantation apart from an ordinary flower field is that it’s run by a cooperative that actually makes tea. Local papers report that the cooperative planted the mua flowers with the aim of linking tea production to an agritourism experience. For visitors who come to see the flowers, tea leaves grown on the same land make a natural souvenir choice. They carry a value that souvenirs made in a distant factory don’t — being a genuine local product — and they make for an easy conversation starter as a gift. Like the cases collected in5 villages Vietnam nominated for the World’s Best Tourism Village,places where scenery and local produce come as a set leave you with more than just a single photo — they leave something to enjoy afterward too.
Putting it into an itinerary
Măng Đen is a highland area reached via National Route 24 from Quảng Ngãi city or Kon Tum city, and staying overnight to catch the flowers early in the morning is more satisfying than a day trip. On the afternoon of day one, photograph the terraced fields and native mua at the café on Tiên Nhân Hill; the next morning, photograph the wall of Australian mua at the Đông Trường Sơn tea hill. In this order, you can capture good light and two different compositions in a single trip. If you’re getting started, it’s a good idea to book one night’s accommodation in Kon Plông (Măng Đen) before you leave, and plan to head to the tea plantation first thing in the morning on the day.
