1. The only place has been twice recognized as World Natural Heritage and listed as one of the new 7 natural wonders of the world
With the largest number of islands in the country, accounting for nearly two third of total islands in Viet Nam, covering an area of 1,553 km2 with 1,969 islands, Ha Long Bay has outstanding values, especially landscape, geological and morphological values.
Eternal and magnificent beauty of Ha Long Bay is created by three elements, namely: Stone, Water and Sky. This is a privilege of nature for Ha Long, which no other sites in the world obtain.
With such unique values, Ha Long Bay has been twice recognized as the World Natural Heritage by UNESCO and surpassed more than 400 wonders from over 200 countries and territories to be inscribed on the list of new seven natural wonders of the world.
2. Landscape value
Ha Long Bay is one of the 10 most beautiful bays in the world. It is an extraordinary work of art by the Creator, a combination of sculpture and painting, including the harmony and flexibility of layout and colors, of shape and space, which is represented by thousands of islands on the sea with different shapes like to be intentionally made by the Creator, inspiring endless imagination of the human.
3. Geological and morphological values
Long geological history of Ha Long Bay has been known for at least over 500 million years including various formations of terrestrial deposit and carbonate sediment. These are rock historical pages recording great events of the regional geological processes, shown through colors, material components, arrangement and structure of rock layers, fossil relics still preserved until now.
Ha Long Bay is the best example of marine invaded karst landscape and one of the most important regions of fengcong and fengling karst in the world. Ha Long Bay is considered as one of the most extensive and best-developed areas of Karst tower in the word, which is a highlight affirming its position of a World Natural Heritage to become a new World Natural Wonder.
4. Biodiversity value
Biodiversity is an advantage and attractive characteristic of Ha Long Bay with typical ecosystems of the tropical area. Among 2,949 species of preserved flora and fauna, 102 rare and precious species with global or regional value have been determined including many species of very rare and precious endemic flora are available in this place only.
5. Cultural and historical values
Ha Long Bay was one of the cradles of the ancient Vietnamese people with three continuous pre-historic cultures from 18,000 to 3,500 years ago, namely: Soi Nhu, Cai Beo, and Ha Long. Ha Long stores many outstanding tangible and intangible cultural values such as archaeological sites of Tien Ong, Me Cung and Thien Long…
6. The world heritage with the most values
Apart from aesthetic, landscape, geographical and morphological values, Ha Long Bay also contains two outstanding values of biodiversity and culture - history which are not present in six other world heritage sites in Viet Nam and more than 900 heritage sites in the word.
7. Tourism and recreation values
With magnificent natural landscape, different types of caves and grottoes, beautiful beaches, and a large numbers of cultural and historical relics, Ha Long Bay gathers almost of important factors to attract tourists. At present, overnight stay on the bay is considered as unique and distinctive tourism product attracting a large number of domestic and international tourists.
8. Diversity of aquatic products
With ideal conditions, nutrient-rich water resource, calm sea and large tidal flats, Ha Long Bay has diversified marine resources with 315 species of fish and 450 species of mollusc, such as garrupa, mackerel, threadfin, cuttle-fish, shrimp, crab, abalone, and holothurian…, especially high economic value and environmental friendly species, namely: geoduck clam, pearl, and arca…
9. A destination receiving the largest number of international visitors in Viet Nam
With its favourable conditions and titles, Ha Long Bay is the destination attracting the largest number of international visitors among seven world heritage sites of Viet Nam in recent years (receiving over 6 million arrivals of domestic and international visitors in 2011). Ha Long is always one of the first priorities of almost all international visitors when they design their voyage to Viet Nam.
Compiled by Phuong Anh (TITC)