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HaLong Bay is located in the
northeastern part of Vietnam and
constitutes part of the western bank
of Bac Bo Gulf, including the sea
area of
HaLong Bay City and Cam Pha Town
and part of Vân Don island district.
It abuts Cat Ba Island in the
southwest. Toward the west is the
shore with a 120 km-long coastline.
It is located within 106o58’-107o22’
east longitude and within 20o45’-
20o50’ north latitude. The site is
1553 sq. km with 1969 islands of
various sizes, of which 989 have
been named.
The islands in
HaLong Bay are mainly limestone
and schist islands most lying in the
two main areas: the southeastern
part of Bái Tử Long Bay and
southwestern part of
HaLong Bay. These islands
represent the most ancient images of
a geographical site having a
tectonic age of from 250 million to
280 million years. They are the
result of many times of rising and
lowering processes of the continent
to form a karst. The process of
nearly full erosion and weathering
of the karst created the unique
HaLong Bay in the world. In a
not very large area, thousands of
islands with different forms look
like glittering emeralds attached to
the blue scarf of a virgin. The area
where many stone islands concentrate
has spectacular scenes and
world-famous caves and is the center
of
HaLong Bay Natural Heritage,
including
HaLong Bay and a part of Bái Tu
Long Bay.
The area is recognized as the World
Natural Heritage that is the area of
434 sq. km with 775 islands. It
looks like a giant triangle with Ðầu
Gỗ Island (in the west), Ba Hầm Lake
(in the south) and Cống Tây Island
(in the east) as its three angle
points. The nearby area is the
buffer area and areas classified as
national beauty spots in 1962 by the
Ministry of Culture and Information.
Viewed from above,
HaLong Bay looks like an
extremely vivid huge drawing. This
is a wonderful and skilful
masterpiece of the Creation and of
nature that turns thousands of dumb
soulless stone islands into
fantastic sculptural and artistic
works of various graceful shapes,
both familiar and strange to human
beings. Thousands of islands
emerging uneven in the fanciful
waves look strong and magnificent
but also mild and vivid. Amidst
these islands we feel as if we were
astray in a petrified legendary
world. There are many names given to
islands according to their shapes
and forms. This one looks like
somebody heading toward the shore:
Hòn Ðầu Người (Human Head Island);
that one looks like a dragon
hovering above the sea surface: Hòn
Rông (Dragon Island); another looks
like an old man sitting fishing: Hòn
Lã Vọng; some look like big sails
struggling amidst the wind to set
off for the sea: Hòn Cánh Buồm (Sail
Island); then two islands look like
a pair of chicken lovingly playing
with each other above the sea: Hòn
Trống Mái (Male and Female Chicken
Island); and amid the vast sea
stands an island like a big incense
burner like a ritual offering to
Heaven: Hòn Lư Hương (Incense Burner
Island). All are so real that people
are taken aback by them. Those stone
islands have experienced
unpredictable changes over time and
they take different shapes from
different angles of view. Here, we
come to realize that they are not
dumb inanimate things but are vivid
and soulful.
Inside the stone islands are various
breath-taking caves, such as Thiên
Cung, Ðầu Gỗ, Sửng Sốt, Trinh Nữ,
Tam Cung and others. These are
really magnificent palaces of the
Creation on earth. Long ago,
HaLong Bay has been called by
the great national poet Nguyễn
Trãi:“a wonder of the earth erected
towards the high sky”. Many men of
letters from all over the world have
been taken aback at the grandiose
scenery of Hạ Long. They seem to get
puzzled and incompetent as their
treasure of vocabulary is not rich
enough to depict the splendor of
this place.
HaLong Bay is also attached to
glorious pages of Vietnamese
history, with famous sites such as
Vân Ðồn, a bustling trade port in
the 12th century, charming Bài Thơ
Mountain, and not very far away from
here is the Bạch Đằng River which
witnessed two famous naval battles
of the Viêt’s ancestors against
invaders. Also, Hạ Long is one of
the cradles of human kind with the
glorious Hạ Long culture in the late
Neolithic age, discovered at such
archeological sites as Ðộng Mang,
Xích Thổ, Soi Nhụ and Thoi Giếng.
Hạ Long is also home to great
biodiversity with typical
eco-systems like mangrove forest,
coral and tropical forest. It is
also home to thousands of plants and
animals of numerous species, for
example shrimp, fish and squid. Some
species are particularly rare and
can be found no where else.
With such special values, at the
18th Session of UNESCO’s Council of
World Heritage held on 17 December
1994 in Thailand, Hạ Long Bay was
officially placed on the list of the
World Natural Heritage. In 2000,
UNESCO recognized it as the World
Heritage for the second time for its
geographical and geomorphologic
values. This confirms the global
premier value of
HaLong Bay.
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Halong Bay
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