Photo. Admiring the Ha Long Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin in north of Vietnam. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes. Photographer: Sigurd Rendander from Norway.
The limestone in this bay has gone through 500 million years of formation in different conditions and environments. Actual it has a spooky landscape. Travelling around here you are completely in the hands of the captain on the boat. It wouldn`t be nice to crash the boat against a big limestone rock rising up from the ocean. Your boat would been smashed to pieces. You can also hope the best that the captain is able to find the way back again in the labyrinth of islands.
Ha Long Bay is located in Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam, where its mountains, water, clouds, caves and grottoes which forms a mysterious landscape. Ha Long Bay is the center of a larger zone including Bai Tu Long to the northeast and Cat Ba islands to the southwest. It was recognized as World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 1994 and nominated as one of the World’s 7 Natural Wonders in 2009.
According to scientists was Ha Long Bay one of the first cradles of human existence in areas as Dong Mang, Xich Tho, Soi Nhu, and Thoi Gieng. It is also a region of highly-concentrated biological diversity with many ecosystems of salt water-flooded forests, coral reefs, and tropical forests featuring thousands of species of animal and plant life.
Hạ Long Bay means literally the "Descending Dragon Bay"; Vietnamese: Vịnh Hạ Long. It covers an area of around 1,553 km2, including 1,960 islets, most of them are limestone. The center of the bay has an area of 334 km2 with a high density of 775 islets (source: based on facts from Wikipedia). Closer to real fairytale landscape is hard to imagine.
Stein Morten Lund, 27 May 2011
Additional information
Read more about adventures in Vietnam on our global travel guide Travel Explorations.
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