Halong Bay, Vietnam

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a popular travel
destination, located in Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam. Administratively, the
bay belongs to Ha 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 1,553km², including 1,960 islets, most of
which are limestone. The core of the bay has an area of 334km² with a high
density of 775 islets. 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. The geo-diversity of the environment in
the area has created biodiversity, including a tropical evergreen biosystem,
oceanic and sea shore biosystem. Ha Long Bay is home to 14 endemic floral
species and 60 endemic faunal species.

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 18,000-7,000 BC, the Cái Bèo culture
7,000-5,000 BC and the Hạ Long culture 3,500-5,000 years ago. Ha Long Bay
also marked important events in the history of Vietnam with many artifacts
found in Bài Thơ Mout, Đầu Gỗ Cave, Bãi Cháy.

500 years ago, Nguyen Trai praised the beauty of Ha Long Bay in his verse Lộ
nhập Vân Đồn, in which he called it "rock wonder in the sky". In 1962, the
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam listed Ha Long Bay in the
National Relics and Landscapes publication. In 1994, the core zone of Ha
Long Bay was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site according to criteria
vii, and listed for a second time according to criteria viii. Together with
Nha Trang Bay and Lang Co of Vietnam, Hạ Long Bay is recognized as one of
the 33 most beautiful bays in the world.

Etymology

According to local legend, when the Vietnamese were fighting Chinese
invaders, the gods sent a family of dragons to help defend the land. 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. The people kept their land safe and formed
what later became the country of Vietnam. After that, dragons were
interested in peaceful sightseeing of the earth, and then decided to live
here. 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- colour of the foam made when Dragon's children
wriggled, Long: dragon, Vỹ: tail).

Location

Ha 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 120km long coastline and is
approximately 1,553km² in size with about 2000 islets. The area designated
by UNESCO as the World Natural Heritage Site incorporates 434km² 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

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. Ha 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

Soi Nhụ culture (16000- 5000 BC)

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 habitants
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- 3000BC)

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

Feudal period

History shows that Ha 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.

System of isles and caves

The bay consists of a dense cluster of over 3,000 limestone monolithic
islands (although locals claim there are only 1,969 as this is the year of
Ho Chi Minh's death), 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 Ha 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. Both of them have tourist facilities including hotels
and beaches. There are a number of beautiful beaches on the smaller islands.

Some of the islands support floating villages of fishermen, who ply 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.

Inhabitants

A community of around 1,600 people live on Ha 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).

Awards and designations

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

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

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 7 Natural Wonders.

History of tectonics

According to scientists, Ha 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), Ha Long Bay was deep sea. During the Carboniferous and
Permian periods (340-250 million years ago), Ha Long Bay was at shallow sea
level.

Karst geomorphology value

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; Ha 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.