Ha Long Bay *
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Country	Vietnam
Type	Natural
Criteria	vii, viii
Reference	672
Region **	Asia-Pacific
Inscription history
Inscription	1994 (18th Session)
Extensions	2000
Location of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List ** Region as classified by UNESCO

This article contains Vietnamese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of chữ Nôm, chữ Hán and chữ Quốc Ngữ.

Ha Long Bay (Vietnamese: Vịnh Hạ Long,  listen, literally: "descending dragon bay") is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a popular travel destination, located in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam. Administratively, the bay belongs to Hạ Long City, Cẩm Phả town, and part of Van Don district. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes. Ha Long Bay is a center of a larger zone which includes Bái Tử Long bay to the northeast, and Cát Bà islands to the southwest. These larger zones share similar geological, geographical, geomorphological, climate, and cultural characters.

Ha Long Bay has an area of around 1,553 km², including 1,960–2,000 islets, most of which are limestone. The core of the bay has an area of 334 km² with a high density of 775 islets.^[1] The limestone in this bay has gone through 500 million years of formation in different conditions and environments. The evolution of the karst in this bay has taken 20 million years under the impact of the tropical wet climate.^[2] The geo-diversity of the environment in the area has created biodiversity, including a tropical evergreen biosystem, oceanic and sea shore biosystem.^[3] Ha Long Bay is home to 14 endemic floral species^[4] and 60 endemic faunal species.^[5]

Historical research surveys have shown the presence of prehistorical human beings in this area tens of thousands years ago. The successive ancient cultures are the Soi Nhụ culture around 18,000–7000 BC, the Cái Bèo culture 7000–5000 BC^[6] and the Hạ Long culture 5,000–3,500 years ago.^[7] Hạ Long Bay also marked important events in the history of Vietnam with many artifacts found in Bài Thơ Mout, Đầu Gỗ Cave, Bãi Cháy.^[7]

500 years ago, Nguyen Trai praised the beauty of Hạ Long Bay in his verse Lộ nhập Vân Đồn, in which he called it "rock wonder in the sky".^[8] In 1962, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam listed Hạ Long Bay in the National Relics and Landscapes publication.^[9] In 1994, the core zone of Hạ Long Bay was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site according to criterion vii, and listed for a second time according to criterion viii.^[10]

Etymology[link]

The name Hạ Long is derived from the Sino-Vietnamese 下龍, meaning "descending dragon".

According to local legend, when Vietnamese had just started to develop into a country, they had to fight against invaders. To assist Vietnamese in defending their country, the gods sent a family of dragons as protectors. This family of dragons began spitting out jewels and jade. These jewels turned into the islands and islets dotting the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. Under magics, numerous rock mountains abruptly appeared on the sea, ahead of invaders' ships; the forward ships struck the rocks and each other. After winning the battle, the dragons were interested in peaceful sightseeing of the Earth, and then decided to live in this bay. The place where the mother dragon descended was named Hạ Long, the place where the dragon's children attended upon their mother was called Bái Tử Long island (Bái: attend upon, Tử: children, Long: dragon), and the place where the dragon's children wriggled their tails violently was called Bạch Long Vỹ island (Bạch: white-color of the foam made when Dragon's children wriggled, Long: dragon, Vỹ: tail), present day Trà Cổ peninsula, Mong Cai.^[11]

Overview[link]

Thien Cung grotto

Floating fishing village

The bay consists of a dense cluster of over 3,000^{[citation needed]} limestone monolithic islands each topped with thick jungle vegetation, rising spectacularly from the ocean. Several of the islands are hollow, with enormous caves. Hang Đầu Gỗ (Wooden stakes cave) is the largest grotto in the Hạ Long area. French tourists visited in the late 19th century, and named the cave Grotte des Merveilles. Its three large chambers contain large numerous stalactites and stalagmites (as well as 19th century French graffiti). There are two bigger islands, Tuần Châu and Cat Ba, that have permanent inhabitants, as well as tourist facilities including hotels and beaches. There are a number of beautiful beaches on the smaller islands.

A community of around 1,600 people live on Hạ Long Bay in four fishing villages: Cửa Vạn, Ba Hang, Cống Tàu and Vông Viêng in Hùng Thắng commune, Hạ Long city. They live on floating houses and are sustained through fishing and marine aquaculture (cultivating marine biota), plying the shallow waters for 200 species of fish and 450 different kinds of mollusks. Many of the islands have acquired their names as a result of interpretation of their unusual shapes. Such names include Voi Islet (elephant), Ga Choi Islet (fighting cock), and Mai Nha Islet (roof). 989 of the islands have been given names. Birds and animals including bantams, antelopes, monkeys, and lizards also live on some of the islands.

Almost all these islands are as individual towers in a classic fenglin landscape with heights from 50m to 100m, and height/width ratios of up to about six.

Another specific feature of Halong Bay is the abundance of lakes inside the limestone islands. For example, Dau Be island has six enclosed lakes. All these island lakes occupy drowned dolines within fengcong karst.

Location[link]

Hạ Long Bay is located in northeastern Vietnam, from E106°56' to E107°37' and from N20°43' to N21°09'. The bay stretches from Yên Hưng district, past Hạ Long city, Cẩm Phả town to Vân Đồn district, bordered on the south and southeast by the Gulf of Tonkin, on the north by China, and on the west and southwest by Cát Bà island. The bay has a 120 km long coastline and is approximately 1,553 km² in size with about 2,000 islets. The area designated by UNESCO as the World Natural Heritage Site incorporates 434 km² with 775 islets, of which the core zone is delimited by 69 points: Đầu Gỗ island on the west, Ba Hầm lake on the south and Cống Tây island on the east. The protected area is from the Cái Dăm petrol store to Quang Hanh commune, Cẩm Phả town and the surrounding zone.

Climate[link]

The climate of the bay is tropical, wet, sea islands, with two seasons: hot and moist summer, and dry and cold winter. The average temperature is from 15°C- 25°C, and annual rainfall is between 2000mm and 2200mm. Hạ Long Bay has the typical diurnal tide system (tide amplitude ranges from 3.5-4m). The salinity is from 31 to 34.5MT in the dry season and lower in the rainy season.

History[link]

Soi Nhụ culture (16,000- 5000 BC)[link]

Located in Hạ Long and Bái Tử Long are archaeological sites such as Mê Cung and Thiên Long. There are remains from mounds of mountain shellfish (Cyclophorus), spring shellfish (Melania), some fresh water mollusk and some rudimentary labour tools. The main way of life of Soi Nhụ's inhabitants included catching fish and shellfish, collecting fruits and digging for bulbs and roots. Their living environment was a coastal area unlike other Vietnamese cultures, for example, like those found in Hoà Bình and Bắc Sơn.

Cái Bèo culture (5000- 3000 BC)[link]

Located in Hạ Long and Cát Bà island, its inhabitants developed to the level of sea exploitation.

Feudal period[link]

History shows that Hạ Long Bay was the setting for local naval battles against Vietnam's coastal neighbors. On three occasions, in the labyrinth of channels in Bach Dang river near the islands, the Vietnamese army stopped the Chinese from landing. In 1288, General Tran Hung Dao stopped Mongol ships from sailing up the nearby Bach Dang River by placing steel-tipped wooden stakes at high tide, sinking the Mongol Kublai Khan's fleet.

During the Vietnam War, many of the channels between the islands were heavily mined by the United States navy, some of which pose a threat to shipping to this day.

Geology and geomorphology[link]

History of tectonics[link]

The Kissing Rocks

Hạ Long Bay has experienced at least 500 million years in various geological states of orogeny, marine transgression and marine regression. During the Ordovician and Silurian periods (500-410 million years ago), Hạ Long Bay was deep sea. During the Carboniferous and Permian periods (340-250 million years ago), Hạ Long Bay was at shallow sea level.

Karst geomorphology value[link]

Due to a simultaneous combination of ideal factors such as thick, pale, grey, and strong limestone layers, which are formed by fine-grained materials; hot and moist climate and slow tectonic process as a whole; Hạ Long Bay has had a complete karst evolution for 20 million years. There are many types of karst topography in the bay, such as karst field.

Timeline of geologic evolution[link]

Some of the most remarkable geological events in Hạ Long Bay’s history have occurred in the last 1,000 years, include the advance of the sea, the raising of the bay area, strong erosion that has formed coral, and, pure blue and heavily salted water. This process of erosion by seawater has deeply engraved the stone, contributing to its fantastic beauty. Present-day Hạ Long Bay is the result of this long process of geological evolution that has been influenced by so many factors.

Due to all these factors, tourists visiting Hạ Long Bay are not only treated to one of the natural wonders of the world, but also to a precious geological museum that has been naturally preserved in the open air for the last 300 million years.

Ecology[link]

A horseshoe crab in Halong Bay.

Halong Bay is host to two ecosystems: a tropical, moist, evergreen rainforest ecosystem; and a marine and coastal ecosystem. The bay is home to seven endemic species: Livistona halongensis, Impatiens halongensis, Chirita halongensis, Chirita hiepii, Chirita modesta, Paraboea halongensis and Alpinia calcicola.

The many islands that dot the bay are home to a great many other species, including (but likely not limited to): 477 magnoliales, 12 pteris, 20 salt marsh flora; and 4 amphibia, 10 reptilia, 40 aves, and 4 mammalia.

Common aquatic species found in the bay include: cuttlefish (mực); oyster (hào); cyclinae (ngán); prawns (penaeidea (tôm he), panulirus (tôm hùm), parapenaeopsis (tôm sắt), etc.); sipunculoideas (sá sùng); nerita (ốc đĩa); charonia tritonis (ốc tù và); and cà sáy.

Environmental damage[link]

With an increasing tourist trade, mangroves and seagrass beds have been cleared and jetties and wharves have been built for tourist boats.

Fuel and oil, along with tourist litter, have created pollution problems, which impact on both the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem of the islands. Human waste from portable toilets erected for tourists, finds its way into the soil and water surrounding the islands, once more altering the ecosystem functioning, through increased nutrient flow.

Game fishing, often near coral reefs are threatening many endangered species of fish. Often fish caught in the bay are not consumed locally but exported to other markets around the region.

The delicate limestone cave ecosystems are diminishing as tourists visiting the caves break off stalagmites and stalactites. Litter, including wine bottles, are dropped into cave streams. Visitors exhale carbon dioxide, which has a deleterious effect on the caves. The mouths of some caves have been widened to allow for tourist access. This increase in light has led to an imbalance in the delicate links between flora and fauna, and a decrease in the humidity of the caves.^[12]

Awards and designations[link]

In 1962, the Vietnam Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism designated Hạ Long Bay a 'Renowned National Landscape Monument'.

Hạ Long Bay was first listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994,^[13] in recognition of its outstanding, universal aesthetic value. In 2000 the World Heritage Committee additionally recognised Hạ Long Bay for its outstanding geological and geomorphological value,^[14] and its World Heritage Listing was updated.^[15]

In October 2011, World Monuments Fund included the bay on the 2012 World Monuments Watch, citing tourism pressures and associated development as threats to the site that must be addressed. The goal of Watch-listing is to promote strategies of responsible heritage-driven development for a sustainable future.

In 2009, the New 7 Wonders Foundation, which runs the New Seven Wonders of the World program, included Halong Bay on its list of nominations as one the World's New7Wonders of Nature. On November 11, 2011, the New 7 Wonders Foundation provisionally named Halong Bay as one of them.

Hạ Long bay is also a member of the Club of the Most Beautiful Bays of the World.

In literature[link]

In writings about Hạ Long Bay, the following Vietnamese writers said:

• Nguyễn Trãi: "This wonder is ground raising up into the middle of the high sky".
• Xuân Diệu: "Here is the unfinished works of the Beings...Here is the stones which the Giant played and threw away".
• Nguyên Ngọc: "...to form this first- rate wonder, nature only uses: Stone and Water...There are just only two materials themselves chosen from as much as materials, in order to write, to draw, to sculpture, to create everything...It is quite possible that here is the image of the future world".
• Ho Chi Minh: "It is the wonder that one cannot impart to others".
• Pham Van Dong: "Is it one scenery or many sceneries? Is it the scenery in the world or somewhere?".
• Nguyễn Tuân: "Only mountains accept to be old, but Hạ Long sea and wave are young for ever".
• Huy Cận: "Night breathes, stars wave Hạ Long's water".
• Che Lan Vien:

"Hạ Long, Bái Tử Long- Dragons were hidden, only stones still remain
On the moonlight nights, stones meditate as men do..."
Lord Trịnh Cương overflowed with emotion: "Mountains are glistened by water shadow, water spills all over the sky".

Ancient tales[link]

Hạ Long bay's inhabitants have developed numerous tales explaining names given to various isles and caves in the bay.^[16]

• Đầu Gỗ cave (literally: "the end of wooden bars" cave): these wooden bars in this cave are the remnants of sharped wooden columns prepared to build under the water level by the order of Trần Hưng Đạo commander in order to sink Mongolian invaders' ships in 13th century.

• Kim Quy cave (literally: "Golden Turtle" cave): it is told that the Golden Turtle swam toward the Eastern Sea (international name: South China Sea) after returning the holy sword which had assisted King Lê Thái Tổ in the combat against Ming invaders from China. Next, with the approval of the Sea King ^{[disambiguation needed ]}, Golden Turtle continued to fight against monsters in this marine area. Unfortunately, the turtle became exhausted and passed away in a cave. Consequently, the cave was named after the Golden Turtle.

• Con Cóc isle (literally: Frog isle): is a frog- like isle. According to ancient tales, in a year of severe drought, a frog directed all animals to the Heaven and protested against the God. They demonstrated in favour of making rain. As a result, the God must accept the frog as his uncle. Since then, whenever frogs grind their teeth, the God has to pour water down the ground.

Gallery[link]

• 

  Hạ Long Bay View, April 26 2007

• 

  Hạ Long Bay, April 26 2007

• 

  Hạ Long Bay, February 2003

• 

  Hạ Long Bay

See also[link]

• Hạ Long
• Việt Nam

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ha Long Bay

• UNESCO's World Heritage Convention: Halong Bay
• Ha Long Bay travel guide from Wikitravel

v t e World Heritage Sites in Vietnam Cultural Heritages Complex of Huế Monuments · Hội An Ancient Town · Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary · Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long · Citadel of Ho Dynasty Natural Heritages Hạ Long Bay · Phong Nha - Kẻ Bàng National Park

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Coordinates: 20°54′N 107°12′E / 20.9°N 107.2°E / 20.9; 107.2