Halong Bay

Photo by: davidconger.com

What is it?

Its a natural bay that is home to nearly 2000 spectacular tall islets

Where is it?

Vietnam

Did you know?

Ho Chi Minh described Halong Bay as ‘the wonder that one cannot impart to others” (more facts)

A little more on Halong Bay

Ha Long Bay, meaning “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 Ha Long City, Cam Pha 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 centre of a larger zone, which includes Bai Tu Long bay to the northeast, and Cat Ba 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. 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 seashore 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 Nhu culture around 18,000–7000 BC, the Cai Beo culture 7000–5000 BC and the Ha Long culture 5,000–3,500 years ago. Ha Long Bay also marked important events in the history of Vietnam with many artefacts found in Bai Tho Mout, Dau Go Cave, Bai Chay.

Source: Wikipedia