Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam – A remote, mountainous province in northwest Vietnam, Dien Bien Phu is famed for the climactic eponymous battle of 1954 in which the Viet Minh resistance army defeated superior French forces to help bring an end to a century of colonial rule.
Today, the province is known for something far less glorious: grinding poverty. Though Vietnam’s economy has grown by an average 6.17 percent annually over the past two decades, 45 percent of Dien Bien Phu’s population remains mired in poverty, according to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, making it the country’s second-poorest province.
