Viet NamBy Maciek & Agnieszka Czaplinski

Hạ Long Bay (literally: "Descending Dragon Bay"; Vietnamese:Vịnh Hạ Long) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a populartravel destination, located inQuảng Ninh province, Vietnam.Administratively, the bay belongs to Hạ Long City, Cẩm Phảtown, and part of Van Don district. The bay featuresthousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes andshapes.  Hạ  Long  Bay  is  a  center  of  a  larger  zone  whichincludes Bái Tử Long bay to the northeast, and Cát Bà islandsto the southwest. These larger zones share similar geological,geographical, geomorphological, climate, and culturalcharacters.Hạ Long Bay has an area of around 1,553 km2, including 1,960islets, most of which are limestone. The core of the bay hasan area of 334 km2 with a high density of 775 islets. Thelimestone in this bay has gone through 500 million years offormation in different conditions and environments. Theevolution of the karst in this bay has taken 20 million yearsunder the impact of the tropical wet climate. The geo-diversity of the environment in the area has createdbiodiversity, including a tropical evergreen biosystem,oceanic and sea shore biosystem.  Hạ Long Bay is home to 14endemic floral species and 60 endemic faunal species.Historical research surveys have shown the presence ofprehistorical human beings in this area tens of thousandsyears ago. The successive ancient cultures are the Soi Nhụculture around 18,000-7000 BC, the Cái Bèo culture 7000-5000 BC and the Hạ Long culture 5,000‐3,500 years ago. HạLong Bay also marked important events in the history ofVietnam with many artifacts found in Bài Thơ Mout, Đầu GỗCave, Bãi Cháy. 500 years ago, Nguyen Trai praised the beautyof Hạ Long Bay in his verse Lộ nhập Vân Đồn, in which he calledit "rock wonder in the sky". In 1962, the Ministry of Culture,Sports  and  Tourism  of  Vietnam  listed  Hạ  Long  Bay  in  theNational Relics and Landscapes publication. In 1994, the corezone  of  Hạ  Long  Bay  was  listed  by  UNESCO  as  a  WorldHeritage Site according to criterion vii, and listed for a secondtime according to criterion viii.

According to local legend, when the Vietnamese were fighting Chinese invaders, the gods sent a family of dragons to help defendthe 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 countryof Vietnam. After that, dragons were interested in peaceful sightseeing of the earth, and then decided to live here. The place wherethe mother dragon descended was named Hạ Long, the place where the dragon's children attended upon their mother was calledBái Tử Long island (Bái: attend upon, Tử: children, Long: dragon), and the place where the dragon's children wriggled their tailsviolently was called Bạch Long Vỹ island (Bạch: white‐ colour of the foam made when Dragon's children wriggled, Long: dragon, Vỹ:tail

Hạ Long Bay is located in northeastern Vietnam, from E106°56' to E107°37' and from N20°43' to N21°09'. The bay stretches from YênHưng district, past Hạ Long City, Cẩm Phả town to Vân Đồn district, bordered on the south and southeast by the Gulf of Tonkin, onthe north by China, and on the west and southwest by Cát Bà island. The bay has a 120 km long coastline and is approximately 1,553km² in size with about 2000 islets. The area designated by UNESCO as the World Natural Heritage Site incorporates 434 km² with775 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 islandon the east. The protected area is from the Cái Dăm petrol store to Quang Hanh commune, Cẩm Phả town and the surrounding zone.