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Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to Quang Ninh, a wonderful land situated in the northeast of Vietnam, My hometown is not only an industrial area but also a famous travel destination. However, first of all, let me tell you a local legend. Long long ago, a Dragon descended from the sky and spat out thousand of pearls when Viet Nam was being attacked by foreign ships. The pearls then became a multitude of small islands and prevented the enemy from advancing further. Nowadays, the natural architecture is one of the most spectacular sight not only in Vietnam but also on the whole world. Its name, which is based on the folk-tale, is literally translated as "Descending Dragons". It is Ha Long Bay - a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. And now, we will take a snapshot about the wonder to know more about it as well as raise the admiration of nature's creation.
Administratively, the bay belongs to Ha Long city, Cam Pha town and a part of Van Don district. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes. It also is the center of a larger zone which includes Bai Tu Long Bay to the northest and Cat Ba Island to the southwest. These zones share similar geological, geographical, climate and cultural characters.
The bay consist of a dense cluster of over 3000 limestone monolithic islands; each topped with thick jungle vegetation, rising spectacularly from the ocean. Several of the islands are hollow, with enormous caves. Dau Go is the largest one in the area. It is also the place in which General Tran Hung Dao and his sholdiers hid the wood to defeat the Mongol invaders. The wonderful hands of nature, along with the imagination of people, makes stones, islands, caves, which have no sense, become lively by tales and beautiful names. 989 of the islands have been given names. Many of them 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).
Ha Long Bay also includes two big islands, Tuan Chau and Cat Ba, that have permanent inhabitant as well as tourist facilities as standardized hotels and beautiful beaches. Besides, there are a number of beautiful beaches on the smaller islands, for example: Titov, Quan Lạn, Soi Sim... Especially, when you're on the top of a mountain on Titov Island, you will find out an interesting secret: from different heights, you can see completely new scenes of Ha Long Bay. However, it is always "a stone wonder on the sky" as Nguyen Trai said.
In the past, Ha Long was known for the tale about the Dragon and her children. Nowadays, the children of Dragons and Tales are working hard all day and night among the spacious sea. A community of around 1,600 people now live on Ha Long Bay in four fishing villages: Cua Van, Ba Hang, Cong Tau, Vong Vieng in Hung Thang commune, Ha Long city. They live on floating houses and are sustained through fishing and marine aquaculture. Additionally, the areas ply the shallow waters for 200 species of fish and 450 different kinds of mollusks. Ha Long Bay is natural, it obviously is the living space of a large number of valuable animals like bantams, antelopes, lizards, monkeys,... which need protecting from illegally hunting
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.
Hạ Long Bay has experienced at least 500 million years in various geological states oforogeny, marine transgression and marine regression. During the Ordovician and Silurianperiods, Hạ Long Bay was deep sea. During the Carboniferou sand Permian periods, Hạ Long Bay was at shallow sea level. 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.
Some of the most remarkable geological events in Hạ Long Bay's history 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. 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.
With the remarkable features, Hạ Long Bay has been recognized as World Heritage Site by UNESCO 2 times, in 1994 and 2000 for its outstading, universal aesthetic value and its outstanding geological and geomorphological value respectively.
Ha Long is the place in which mountains meet ocean, land meets sky. It is the most wonderful combination of heavenly and historical beauty. Its life lasts forever along with the length of history and the severe of time. It is also the life of people working hard on among a wonder. It is immortal among waves of which we pride as a a beautiful part of the West Sea of Vietna.
And now, it's time for us to try our best to support for Hạ Long becoming one of new 7 wonders. It will be a chance to improve the preservation for the sight here and promote Vietnam's pictures to our friends in 5 continents as well.
