08. The Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

Ha Long Bay is one of the world natural wonders. It is the most beautiful tourist place in Vietnam.
Ha Long Bay, situated in the Gulf of Tonkin, includes some 1600 islands and islets forming a spectacular seascape of limestone pillars. Because of their precipitous nature, most of the islands are uninhabited and relatively unaffected by human influence.

Several of the islands are hollow, with enormous caves, floating villages of fisherman, who ply the shallow waters for 200 species of fish and 450 different kind of mollusk. Ha Long Bay features are more than one awesome limestone karsts and islands of various sizes and shapes along the 120 km coastline of Bai Chay Beach.
 Its waters are host to a great diversity of ecosystems including offshore coral reefs, freshwater swamp forests, mangrove forests, small freshwater lakes, and sandy beaches.

The folk tale has it that the dragons descended from heaven to help locals by spitting jewels and jade to the sea, forming a natural fortress against invaders; these precious stones are represented by the lush green outcrops. Several islands boast beautiful grottos and caves with contiguous chambers, hidden ponds and peculiar stone formations.

The climate of the bay is tropical, wet, with two seasons ( hot and moist summer, and dry and cold winter).

Hạ Long bay is also a member of the Club of the Most Beautiful Bays of the World. In 1994, the core zone of Hạ Long Bay was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

In summary, Ha Long Bay possesses a tremendous diversity of caves and other landforms which derive from the unusual geomorphological process of marine invaded tower karst. These areas provide a unique and extensive reservoir of data for the future understanding of geoclimatic history and the nature of karst processes in a complex environment.