Thứ Hai, 7 tháng 3, 2011

Ha Long Bay - Viet Nam

Hạ Long Bay (literally: "Descending Dragon Bay"; Vietnamese: Vinh Ha Long) 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 center 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.
%name
Ha Long Bay has an area of around 1,553 km2, including 1,960 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 sea shore 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 artifacts found in Bai Tho Mout, Dau Go Cave, Bai Chay.
500 years ago, Nguyen Trai praised the beauty of Ha Long Bay in his verse Lo nhap Van Don, in which he called it "rock wonder in the sky". In 1962, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam listed Ha Long Bay in the National Relics and Landscapes publication. In 1994, the core zone of Ha Long Bay was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site according to criterion vii, and listed for a second time according to criterion viii.

%name
Etymology
According to local legend, when the Vietnamese were fighting Chinese invaders, the gods sent a family of dragons to help defend the 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 country of Vietnam. After that, dragons were interested in peaceful sightseeing of the earth, and then decided to live here. The place where the mother dragon descended was named Ha Long, the place where the dragon's children attended upon their mother was called Bai Tu Long island (Bai: attend upon, Tu: children, Long: dragon), and the place where the dragon's children wriggled their tails violently was called Bach Long Vy island (Bach: white- colour of the foam made when Dragon's children wriggled, Long: dragon, Vy: tail).
%name
Location
Ha Long Bay is located in northeastern Vietnam, from E106°56' to E107°37' and from N20°43' to N21°09'. The bay stretches from Yen Hung district, past Ha Long city, Cam Pha town to Van Don district, bordered on the south and southeast by the Gulf of Tonkin, on the north by China, and on the west and southwest by Cat Ba island. The bay has a 120 km long coastline and is approximately 1,553 km² in size with about 2000 islets. The area designated by UNESCO as the World Natural Heritage Site incorporates 434 km² with 775 islets, of which the core zone is delimited by 69 points: Dau Go island on the west, Ba Ham lake on the south and Cong Tay island on the east. The protected area is from the Cai Dam petrol store to Quang Hanh commune, Cam Pha town and the surrounding zone.




 Climate
The climate of the bay is tropical, wet, sea islands, with two seasons: hot and moist summer, and, dry and cold winter. The average temperature is from 15°C- 25°C, and annual rainfall is between 2000mm and 2200mm. Ha Long Bay has the typical diurnal tide system (tide amplitude ranges from 3.5-4m). The salinity is from 31 to 34.5MT in the dry season and lower in the rainy season.

History
+ Soi Nhu culture (16,000- 5000 BC)
Located in Ha Long and Bai Tu Long are archaeological sites such as Me Cung and Thien Long. There are remains from mounds of mountain shellfish (Cyclophorus), spring shellfish (Melania), some fresh water mollusk and some rudimentary labour tools. The main way of life of Soi Nhụ's inhabitants included catching fish and shellfish, collecting fruits and digging for bulbs and roots. Their living environment was a coastal area unlike other Vietnamese cultures, for example, like those found in Hoa Binh and Bac Son.

+ Cai Beo culture (5000- 3000 BC)
Located in Ha Long and Cat Ba island, its inhabitants developed to the level of sea exploitation.
+ Feudal period
History shows that Ha Long Bay was the setting for local naval battles against Vietnam's coastal neighbors. On three occasions, in the labyrinth of channels in Bach Dang river near the islands, the Vietnamese army stopped the Chinese from landing. In 1288, General Tran Hung Dao stopped Mongol ships from sailing up the nearby Bach Dang River by placing steel-tipped wooden stakes at high tide, sinking the Mongol Kublai Khan's fleet.
During the Vietnam War, many of the channels between the islands were heavily mined by the United States navy, some of which pose a threat to shipping to this day.


System of isles and caves
The bay consists of a dense cluster of over 3,000 limestone monolithic islands (although locals claim there are only 1,969 as this is the year of Ho Chi Minh's death), each topped with thick jungle vegetation, rising spectacularly from the ocean. Several of the islands are hollow, with enormous caves. Hang Dau Go (Wooden stakes cave) is the largest grotto in the Ha Long area. French tourists visited in the late 19th century, and named the cave Grotte des Merveilles. Its three large chambers contain large numerous stalactites and stalagmites (as well as 19th century French graffiti). There are two bigger islands, Tuan Chau and Cat Ba, that have permanent inhabitants. Both of them have tourist facilities including hotels and beaches. There are a number of beautiful beaches on the smaller islands.
Some of the islands support floating villages of fishermen, who ply the shallow waters for 200 species of fish and 450 different kinds of mollusks. Many of the islands have acquired their names as a result of interpretation of their unusual shapes. Such names include Voi Islet (elephant), Ga Choi Islet (fighting cock), and Mai Nha Islet (roof). 989 of the islands have been given names. Birds and animals including bantams, antelopes, monkeys, and lizards also live on some of the islands.
Almost all these islands are as individual towers in a classic fenglin landscape with heights from 50m to 100m, and height/width ratios of up to about six.
Another specific feature of Halong Bay is the abundance of lakes inside the limestone islands. For example, Dau Be island has six enclosed lakes. All these island lakes occupy drowned dolines within fengcong karst.


Inhabitants
A community of around 1,600 people live on Hạ Long Bay in four fishing villages: Cua Van, Ba Hang, Cong Tau and Vong Vieng in Hung Thang commune, Ha Long city. They live on floating houses and are sustained through fishing and marine aquaculture (cultivating marine biota). 

Awards and designations
 In 1962, the Vietnam Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism designated Ha Long Bay a 'Renowned National Landscape Monument'.
Ha Long Bay was first listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994, in recognition of its outstanding, universal aesthetic value. In 2000 the World Heritage Committee additionally recognised Ha Long Bay for its outstanding geological and geomorphological value, and its World Heritage Listing was updated. In 2009, the New 7 Wonders Foundation, which runs the New Seven Wonders of the World program, included Halong Bay on its list of nominations as one the World's 7 Natural Wonders.
%name


Geology and geomorphology
+ History of tectonics
 

According to scientists, Ha Long Bay has experienced at least 500 million years in various geological states of orogeny, marine transgression and marine regression. During the Ordovician and Silurian periods (500-410 million years ago), Ha Long Bay was deep sea. During the Carboniferous and Permian periods (340-250 million years ago), Ha Long Bay was at shallow sea level.

+ Karst geomorphology value

Due to a simultaneous combination of ideal factors such as thick, pale, grey, and strong limestone layers, which are formed by fine-grained materials; hot and moist climate and slow tectonic process as a whole; Hạ Long Bay has had a complete karst evolution for 20 million years. There are many types of karst topography in the bay, such as karst field.

+ Timeline of geologic evolution

Some of the most remarkable geological events in Hạ Long Bay’s history in the last 1,000 years, include the advance of the sea, the raising of the bay area, strong erosion that has formed coral, and, pure blue and heavily salted water. This process of erosion by seawater has deeply engraved the stone, contributing to its fantastic beauty. Present-day Hạ Long Bay is the result of this long process of geological evolution that has been influenced by so many factors. Due to all these factors, tourists visiting Hạ Long Bay are not only treated to one of the natural wonders of the world, but also to a precious geological museum that has been naturally preserved in the open air for the last 300 million years.

Biodiversity

Halong Bay is host to two ecosystems: a tropical, moist, evergreen rainforest ecosystem; and a marine and coastal ecosystem. The bay is home to seven endemic species.

Endemic species

    * Livistona halongensis
    * Impatiens halongensis
    * Chirita halongensis
    * Chirita hiepii
    * Chirita modesta
    * Paraboea halongensis
    * Alpinia calcicola

The many islands that dot the bay are home to a great many other species, including (but likely not limited to): 477 magnoliales, 12 pteris, 20 salt marsh flora; and 4 amphibia, 10 reptilia, 40 aves, and 4 mammalia.

Cuisine

Seafood in Ha Long is diversified. Cuttlefish- muc, oyster- hao, cyclinae- ngan, prawn (penaeidea- tom he, panulirus- tom hum, parapenaeopsis- tom sat...), sipunculoideas- sa sung, nerita- oc dia, charonia tritonis- oc tu va, and ca say, are among the varieties appearing in popular local dishes.

Environmental damage

With an increasing tourist trade, mangroves and seagrass beds have been cleared and jetties and wharves have been built for tourist boats.
Fuel and oil, along with tourist litter, have created pollution problems, which impact on both the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem of the islands. Human waste from portable toilets erected for tourists, finds its way into the soil and water surrounding the islands, once more altering the ecosystem functioning, through increased nutrient flow.
Game fishing, often near coral reefs are threatening many endangered species of fish. Often fish caught in the bay are not consumed locally but exported to other markets around the region.
The delicate limestone cave ecosystems are diminishing as tourists visiting the caves break off stalagmites and stalactites. Litter, including wine bottles, are dropped into cave streams. Visitors exhale carbon dioxide, which has a deleterious effect on the caves. The mouths of some caves have been widened to allow for tourist access. This increase in light has led to an imbalance in the delicate links between flora and fauna, and a decrease in the humidity of the caves.

In literature

In writings about Ha Long Bay, the following Vietnamese writers said:

    * Nguyen Trai: "This wonder is ground raising up into the middle of the high sky".
    * Xuan Dieu: "Here is the unfinished works of the Beings...Here is the stones which the Giant played and threw away".
    * Nguyen Ngoc: "...to form this first- rate wonder, nature only uses: Stone and Water...There are just only two materials themselves chosen from as much as materials, in order to write, to draw, to sculpture, to create everything...It is quite possible that here is the image of the future world".
    * Ho Chi Minh: "It is the wonder that one cannot impart to others".
    * Pham Van Dong: "Is it one scenery or many sceneries? Is it the scenery in the world or somewhere?".
    * Nguyen Tuan: "Only mountains accept to be old, but Hạ Long sea and wave are young for ever".
    * Huy Can: "Night breathes, stars wave Hạ Long's water".
    * Che Lan Vien: "Ha Long, Bai Tu Long- Dragons were hidden, only stones still remain On the moonlight nights, stones meditate as men do..."
Lord Trinh Cuong overflowed with emotion: "Mountains are glistend by water shadow, water spills all over the sky".

Tourist attraction

Ha Long Bay is a dangerous tourist attraction. In February 17 2011, twelve died when their tourist boat sunk. Most of them are foreign tourists, from Britain, Australia, France, Japan, USA, Russia, Sweden, and Switzerland. Many tourists also died in similar accidents in 2002, 2006, and 2009. According to BBC Vietnamese, some British and Australian tourists who visited Hạ Long Bay said that they are "lucky to still be alive", and they are not surprised when accidents happen, as all tourist boats are "very old", and safety standards are very low.