Halong Bay Vietnam
http://animoto.com/play/LkNq4L26pujUfcgx80UnIg
Ha Long Bay (literally: Descending Dragon bay;
Vietnamese:
Vịnh Hạ Long) 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.
[3] Ha Long Bay is home to 14 endemic floral species
[4] 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.
[7] 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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halong_Bay
This was a wonderful experience. We went by Launch to the start of the tour and spent all day sailing the Islands in a wonderful boat. We visited the Caves and purchased fruits from small boat vendors.
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).
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.
