Hạ Long Bay

Hạ Long Bay

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Criteria	Natural: vii, viii
Reference	672
Inscription	1994 (18th Session)
Extensions	2000

Hạ Long Bay (literally: Descending Dragon bay; Template:Lang-vi) is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes.

Etymology

Local legend has it that long ago, 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 decided to live here then. The place where Mother Dragon flew down was named Hạ Long, the place where the dragon children attended upon their mother was called Bái Tử Long island (Bái: attend upon, Tử: children, Long: dragon), and the place where the dragon children wriggled their tails violently was called Bạch Long Vỹ island (Bạch: white- colour of the foam made when Children Dragon wriggle, Long: dragon, Vỹ: tail).

Geographical 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 120 kilometre long coastline and is approximately 1,553 square kilometres in size with about 2000 islets. The area designated by UNESCO as the World Natural Heritage Site includes 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 giants zone.

Climate

The bay is a sea islands in tropical wet with 2 seasons: hot and moist summer, dry and cold winter. Average temperature is from 15°C- 25°C. 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 dry season and lower in rainy season.

History

Soi Nhụ culture (16000- 5000 BCE)

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

Cái Bèo culture (5000- 3000BCE)

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 has been 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 navy of the United States, some of which pose a threat to shipping to this day.

System of isles and caves

Thien Cung grotto

The bay consists of a dense cluster of 1,969 limestone monolithic islands, each topped with thick jungle vegetation, which rise 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 wonderful 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 these islands are individual towers in a classic fenglin lanscape which height is from 50m to 100m and height/width ratios up to about 6.

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

Floating fishing village

A community of around 1600 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 by capture 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.

The New Open World Foundation has included Halong Bay on its list for nomination as one the World's 7 Natural Wonders.[1]

The Kissing Rocks

Geology and geomorphology

History of tectonics

Scientists say that Ha Long Bay has experienced at least 500 million years in the 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

As of simultaneous combination of ideal factors like thick pale grey strong limestone layer which is formed by fine-grained materials, hot and moist climate and slow tectonic process in whole, Ha Long bay has had a complete karst evolution for 20 million years. There are many of karst topography kind in Ha Long such as karst field.

Biodiversity

Ha Long Bay is host to two ecosystems: a tropical, moist, evergreen rainforest ecosystem and a marine & coastal ecosystem. The bay is home to seven endemic species.

Endemic species

• Livistona halongensis
• Impatiens halongensis
• Chirita halongensis
• Chirita hiepii
• Chirita modesta
• Paraboea halongensis
• 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.

Economy

Tourism

Ha Long Bay is perhaps the most popular travel destination of the country. Foreigners and natives alike are attracted to its natural, universal appeal, not to mention the shopping and dining prospects located close by.

Cuisine

Seafood in Ha Long is diversified. Cuttlefish- mực, oyster- hà, cyclinae- ngán, prawn (penaeidea- tôm he, panulirus- tôm hùm, parapenaeopsis- tôm sắt...), sipunculoideas- sá sùng, nerita- ốc đĩa, charonia tritonis- ốc tù và, cà sáy are among the varieties appearing in popular local dishes.

Problems of Tourism

With an increasing tourist trade, mangroves and seagrass beds have had to be 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 the fish is 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, is dropped into cave streams and visitors exhale carbon dioxide, which has a deleterious affect on the caves. The mouths of some caves have been widened to allow tourist access. This increase in light has lead to an imbalance in the delicate links between the flora and fauna, and a decrease in the humidity of the caves.

In literature

Nguyễn Trãi wrote about Ha Long Bay: "This wonder is ground raising up into the middle of the high sky". Xuân Diệu utter a praise: "Here is the unfinished works of the Beings...Here is the stones which the Giant played and threw away". Nguyên Ngọc summarized: "...to form this first- rate wonder, nature only uses: Stone and Water...There is 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 remarks: "It is the wonder that one cannot impart to others". Pham Van Dong embarrassed: "Is it one scenery or many seceneries? Is it the scenery in the world or somewhere?". Nguyễn Tuân recognized that: "Only mountains accept to be old, but Ha Long sea and wave are young for ever".

Che Lan Vien sensed:

"Hạ Long, Bái Tử Long- Dragons were hidden, only stones still remain

On the moonlight night, stones meditate as men do..."

Lord Trịnh Cương overflowed with emotion: "Mountains are glistend by water shadow, water spills all over the sky".

Huy Cận was agitated: "Night breathes, stars wave Ha Long's water".

In popular culture

• It was the theme of Robocon (Asia-Pacific Robot Contest) hold in Vietnam in 2007: "Discover Ha Long" [2]
• The band dredg wrote a song titled Ha Long Bay.
• In the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, James and Wai Lin attempt to chase down Elliot Carver played by Jonathan Pryce in the Ha Long Bay area.
• It was featured on the Amazing Race 10 on "Leg 4", which was originally aired on October 8, 2006.
• It was featured in the programme The Hairy Bikers' Cookbook.
• It was featured in the penultimate episode of the UK television show "By Any Means" in November 2008, when Charlie Boorman and his team were stranded in their boat.
• It was featured in a full length episode of UK television show Top Gear, Series 12, on 28 December 2008.
• A background stage that looks very similar to Ha Long as well as bearing a crate that has the word "HALONG" written on it is featured in Capcom's Street Fighter IV

Gallery

• 
  Ha Long Bay View, April 26 2007
• 
  Ha Long Bay, April 26 2007
• 
  Ha Long Bay, February 2003
• 
  Water variation in Ha Long Bay, April 2008
• Ha Long Bay, December 22, 2005
  Ha Long Bay, December 22, 2005
• Boats in Ha Long Bay, December 22, 2005
  Boats in Ha Long Bay, December 22, 2005
• Ha Long Bay
  Ha Long Bay
• 
  Ha Long Bay

See also

• Ha Long