Phong Nha - Ke Bang: Witnesses of over 400 million years

While the world is rapidly moving towards urbanization, where old-growth forests are being pushed aside by the dizzying pace of concrete and asphalt development, there is a region in the Truong Son mountain range that still retains its pristine grandeur, a witness to over 400 million years of geological history.

That is Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, twice named by UNESCO as a heritage site of Vietnam, but a heritage site of humanity in Quang Binh province .

The numbers hold an untold mystery.

"We have only surveyed about 30% of the national park's area," said Pham Hong Thai, Director of the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park Management Board, speaking from the perspective of someone who has lived amidst rocks and ancient forests for a long time.

Tourists are amazed inside the caves of Quang Binh.

30% means 70% remains untouched. It means hundreds of caves untouched by human footsteps, underground rivers whose sounds have only been heard flowing beneath the earth. It means an entire parallel world , silent and pristine, where the laws of nature operate without the need for light.

Mr. Pham Hong Thai spoke about the 70% of Phong Nha - Ke Bang area that remains unexplored.

In the world's largest karst region, where geology was formed over 400 million years ago, 447 caves have been surveyed, with a total length of 246 km. Among them, Son Doong - the world's largest cave - continues to reveal wonders that even science is amazed by.

Phong Nha – Ke Bang is a land of paradoxes, old yet new, ancient yet never outdated.

Inside the system of more than 400 caves in Phong Nha - Ke Bang are sediments over 400 million years old.

Beneath the forest canopy, the ecosystem continues to thrive. Nearly 3,000 species of higher plants and 1,394 species of animals have been recorded. Among them are 43 species new to science – a number that not only speaks to diversity but also reveals the potential for much we still don't know about the world we live in.

Names like Limestone Stingray, Paradise Scorpion, Phong Nha Gecko... sound both astonishing and mysterious, as if nature has never wanted to reveal everything. And anyone who has ever set foot in the Survival Valley or the Dark Cave will understand that life here is not noisy, but has permeated deeply over more than 400 million years.

Traveling is like discovering the testament of the rocks.

Phong Nha – Ke Bang once had only two tourist attractions: Phong Nha Cave and Tien Son Cave. Now, that number has risen to 17. From Son Doong Cave to Thien Duong Cave, from Nuoc Mooc Stream to Chay River – Dark Cave, then Sinh Ton Valley, Va Cave, En Cave... The influx of tourists is increasing, especially after international travel magazines repeatedly named Quang Binh as one of the most attractive destinations on the planet.

Booking.com once ranked Phong Nha as the second friendliest destination in Vietnam, while Travel+Leisure called it "a paradise of caves and streams".

A labyrinth in Phong Nha - Ke Bang

However, concerns remain: "The quality of some tourism products is not commensurate with the resources of the heritage site," Mr. Pham Hong Thai acknowledged. This raises a question: how to exploit the value without destroying it, how to open the doors to tourists without closing the ecological barrier?

And with nominations for the titles "Vietnam's Leading Nature Destination 2025" and "Asia's Leading National Park 2025" underway, that question needs an answer more than ever.

From those deposits, the rock's legacy has been left behind a world-class cave tourism industry.

Phong Nha – Ke Bang is not just a place to check in, not a destination to "cross off" in a travel guidebook. It is a geological testament, written in limestone, in primeval forests, in every stream that flows through the mountains. It is a place where nature lives with its memories, and where people, if they respect it enough, will be listened to. At the heart of this is humanity. That humanity is the A Rem people who have preserved this listening for generations. They protect the forests, safeguard the caves, and protect every stream to this day. "We protect the forests, the streams, and the caves not for personal gain, but because it is Mother Nature that has sheltered our ancestors and future generations," said old man Dinh Rau by the Ruc Ca Roong stream.

"In Phong Nha - Ke Bang, life exists not only in the number of discoveries, but also in the wonders hidden deep beneath the earth and in every rock, every stream, every forest canopy, echoing from ancient times," said old man Dinh Rau.

When a Spanish tourist named Sophia exclaimed, "We felt like we had entered another world. A world of pristine yet incredibly impressive nature," what she felt was not just beauty, but a sense of humility before a nature too vast to embrace, too profound to fully comprehend.

Part of the Phong Nha - Ke Bang heritage

Phong Nha – Ke Bang awaits us not only to visit, but also to listen, to empathize. Not to conquer, but to slow down, gaze up at the centuries-old rock formations, and bow our heads before something greater than ourselves.

The world is voting for Phong Nha - Ke Bang. And we can vote too at www.worldtravelawards.com/vote

www.phongnhakebang.vn

Voting for Phong Nha – Ke Bang World Tourism Awards 2025 is currently open from April 1st to August 31st, 2025.

Vote not just for a title, but for the values ​​that need to be preserved for hundreds of millions of years, like the testament of the rocks.

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/phong-nha-ke-bang-chung-nhan-cua-hon-400-trieu-nam-post798737.html