Since 1986, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has undergone tremendous upheavals in urban growth, city planning and market integration. Yet the complex transformations underway in small cities and towns, especially those in uplands regions, and their impacts on residents’ livelihoods, have been relatively ignored to date in the academic literature. Drawing on small cities and everyday politics concepts, we examine the contested relationships between a socialist state bent on completing a major urban make-over for an upland small city, and the reactions and strategies of local residents. From its historical roots as a small border trading post and colonial garrison town in the late 1800s, Lào Cai has now grown to be a key node on the Greater Mekong Sub Regions’ Eastern Corridor. Urban planning has taken a distinctively ‘modern’ turn since the early 1990s, and the contemporary city reflects a curious blend of socialist urban planning ideals, state visions of modernity and the everyday realities of the local population. Great efforts are being made by city officials and developers to copy the urban forms of Vietnam’s large low-land cities, while concurrently ignoring many of the basic needs of the local population, revealing sharp inequalities. Nonetheless, residents are subtly pushing back against the state’s plans via a range of strategies that also highlight the nuances of inhabiting a small upland city.