Halong Overview

Halong Bay was recognized as a World Heritage site since 1994 for its magnificient beauty spots as well as its geologic and geomorphology value, which is reflected through thousands of natural islands.

The Bay lies within the Gulf of Tonkin, in the North-East of Vietnam (about 150km from Hanoi). Halong Bay abuts Cat Ba Island in the southwest. Toward the west is the 120km-long coastline. It comprises a total area of 1553 sq.km with 1969 islands, 989 islands among which have been named.

Viewed from above, Halong Bay resembles a vivid landscape picture with stone islands, clear water set under the deep-blue sky. The Bay is also a region of highly-concentrated biological diversity with different ecosystems of mangrove forest, coral reefs, and tropical forests featuring thousands of species of floral and fauna.

The everlasting beauty of Ha Long is constituted by three factors: stone, water and sky. The island system is multicolored with a variety of shapes which provoke the imagination: Dinh Huong (Incense Burner) implies spiritual significance; Ga Choi (Fighting Cocks) the symbol of Viet Nam tourism, Con Coc (Toad) recalls the passage of time, waiting thousands of years to seek justice in Heaven. There are islands that resemble a resplendent throne - a Vietnamese mother’s curved back carrying her child, a roof, an old man, a human head and so on.

Inside the bigger islands are the mysterious yet wonderful caves and grottoes. Dau Go Cave (Wooden Stakes) dazzles the senses with many huge stalactites hanging poised in mid air and stalagmites growing majestically upwards. Then there is Thien Cung Grotto (Heavenly Palace) with its small, narrow entrance, but the inside looks like a marvelous palace, and many other caves, each of which has its own attraction and beauty.

Ha Long’s sea has always been the same: blue, smooth and still. Ha Long’s beauty changes by seasons. In Spring, buds of trees burst on limestone islands. In Summer, it is cool and clean with many sparkling sun rays reflecting from the sea’s surface. In Autumn, especially at night, moonlight illuminates the mountains so they appear just like gold, inlaid into the earth. In Winter, with pervasive frost, Ha Long is glamorous as “a floating flower basket on smooth wave” (by writer Nguyen Tuan).

Ha Long Bay is a mature karst landscape developed during long time of warm, wet, tropical climate. The sequence of stages in the evolution of a karst landscape over a period of 20 million years requires a combination of several distinct elements including massive thickness of limestone, a hot wet climate and slow overall tectonic uplift.

Another special feature of Ha Long is its bio-diversity, which is an important natural resource and needs to be preserved and conserved to maintain the ecological balance of the whole region. Bio-diversity is the general term used to reflect diversity and abundance in nature including all living things.

The total number of floral species remains unknown as many islands remain unexplored. There are probably over a thousand species of floral, the distribution of which is not uniform. Instead, several different communities (species of plants that always grow together) have been found, such as: mangrove, seashore plants, those of the slopes or sheer cliffs, the summit plants and those that grow around the mouth of caves and in gullies.

In 2002 a survey on assessing and auditing Ha Long Bay’s bio-diversity was conducted by the management authorities and researchers. They surveyed 9 areas in Zone 1 of the World Heritage and all sites had maintained its bio-diversity and species diversity, and more new species were discovered.

In recent years, Halong Bay has attracting a large number of tourists both domestically and internationally. It has been honored to welcome many international delegations, including the leaders of many countries all over the world.