All about Halong Bay

Home of natural wonder features turquoise waters, limestone karts, and isles of all shapes and sizes, Halong Bay has been continually praised for its scenic magnificence. But have you ever known about the exact globally recognized titles of this bay, aside from its double World Heritage Site and World Nature Wonders title? Shall we list them down?

Do you know that around Halong area there are Halong Bay, Bai Tu Long Bay, and then Bach Long Vi Island (nowadays known as Tra Co peninsula)? Some of you might wonder why these places all have the word ‘Long’ on their names. In Vietnamese, ‘Long’ means ‘dragon’ – one of the four sacred creatures in folklore and mythology of Vietnam. The dragon in Vietnamese culture represents the emperor, the power of a nation and prosperity. The ancient belief of Vietnamese is that they are descendant of a dragon and a fairy.

The diverse and enriched culture of every region in Vietnam has always made a long lasting impression on visitors. No place is the same. There will always be some differences to discover, some uniqueness to surprise even the most knowledgeable travelers. And Halong is no exception. As a combination of coastal region, in-land city and island, the people and culture of Halong present themselves as a part of Northern coastal life, which is significantly different from other regions in Vietnam.

Halong Bay has a long history of forming and developing from ancient time to these days. The place has witnessed archaic civilizations, Feudalism from Northern invaders, colonialism from Western invaders…, thus promotes some fascinating history of Vietnam from establishment stage.

Halong Bay has made a lot of noise in the international tourism scene ever since it was granted with a UNESCO World Heritage Site title in 1994. And even after 10 years up to now, it still is making a lot of huge popularity votes from all kinds of travellers from around the globe. These 10 random facts below about World Heritage Site, Halong Bay might reveal another side of this destination that you haven't known yet.

Maybe for you, Halong Bay is just a vast bay with water and limestone, amazingly beautiful but that’s all. But actually, it has been involving in a complex geological karst process since ancient time to create such Halong Bay as today. Knowing how it all become will definitely make you cherish more the critical value of geology and geomorphology of the bay.