I did it myself. Even stood on the literal border of Vietnam and China. ;-) That is China in the distance and VN is building a wall of some sort. The road that you see is filled with trucks carrying stuff. Last picture is one of the dirt border backroads I was driving on... pretty epic trip.

I also drove into Laos near the north side and all through it as well. The amount of Chinese influence in Laos is overwhelming.

https://imgur.com/a/WGWv9kr