Ha Long Bay is in the top 55 most beautiful destinations in the world to admire

Cruise on Ha Long Bay, (Photo: Minh Duc/VNA)

The prestigious international travel magazine Travel+Leisure has just rated Ha Long Bay (Quang Ninh province) as one of the 55 most beautiful destinations in the world to admire.

Travel+Leisure says there are countless reasons to travel , but many people choose to seek out inspiring moments, unique sights that will hold them back and make them stop. From clear blue lakes, white sand beaches, majestic mountains or historical ruins, all attract visitors to admire and experience.

In this list of 55 top destinations, Travel+Leisure mainly recommends national parks, mountains, beaches, deserts and other natural wonders to inspire travel enthusiasts about the next beautiful destinations on their travel itinerary.

According to Travel+Leisure, with countless limestone mountains covered in green forests and emerald green water, Ha Long Bay is a "dream destination" for photographers and tourists. Coming to the World Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay, visitors can not only relax on the white sand beaches, swim in the cool water, but also have the opportunity to have a wonderful experience on a cruise, cruising on the vast ocean to admire the charming natural scenery, or kayak through the system of mysterious caves.

Ha Long Bay. (Source: Getty/Travel+Leisure)

For a long time, Ha Long Bay has always been considered a top tourist destination in Vietnam with its harmonious and magnificent natural beauty bestowed by the Earth. The majestic beauty of Ha Long Bay has helped this scenic spot be recognized by the United NationsEducational , Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a World Natural Heritage.

Not only that, Ha Long Bay is also continuously named in the rankings of many magazines, websites and tourism organizations around the world.

Most recently, in January 2024, Ha Long Bay was voted the Best of the Best 2024 Travelers' Choice Award by TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel consulting platform. In this list of 7 trending destinations in the world, Ha Long Bay ranked 3rd.

Ha Long Bay has been listed by the American magazine Insider as one of the 50 most beautiful natural wonders in the world.

In December 2023, the famous American travel website The Travel also announced the List of 10 most visited Natural Wonders in the world, among which, with 2.6 million visitors annually, Ha Long Bay (Quang Ninh province, Vietnam) ranked 4th out of 10 destinations on this list.

Previously, in October, the US magazine Forbes ranked Ha Long Bay in the top 24 best destinations for 2024, stating that it is “one of the world’s most unique ecosystems and geological formations. Few places have such a combination of natural beauty, outdoor activities, fresh food, tranquility and easy accessibility.”

As part of the Gulf of Tonkin in Quang Ninh province, Ha Long Bay with hundreds of large and small islands surrounding it always makes a strong impression on visitors not only because of its amazing beauty but also because of the mystery hidden within.

According to many legends, since the founding of the nation, the Vietnamese people have often had to deal with foreign invaders. Therefore, the Jade Emperor sent Mother Dragon and a group of Child Dragons down to earth to help the Vietnamese fight the invaders.

The enemy ships from the sea rushed towards the shore just as the Dragons arrived in the lower world. The Dragons immediately breathed out fire to burn the enemy ships, and some of the Pearls formed a towering stone wall that caused the enemy ships to crash into and shatter, blocking the foreign advance.

After the enemy was defeated, seeing the peaceful land, lush vegetation, and the hard-working, industrious people here, united and helping each other, Mother Dragon and Child Dragon did not return to heaven but stayed on earth, where the battle had just taken place, to forever protect the people of Dai Viet. The place where Mother Dragon landed was Ha Long; the place where Child Dragon landed was Bai Tu Long and the place where the dragons' tails splashed white water was Bach Long Vi.

The ancient legendary story of the mother dragon and her child dragons spitting pearls and creating thousands of rocky islands to block the enemy's path still stands today, creating a priceless heritage for humanity.

The world-recognized heritage area of Ha Long Bay (core area) has an area of 434km², like a triangle with three peaks: Dau Go Island (West), Ba Ham Lake (South) and Cong Tay Island (East), including 775 islands with many caves and beaches.

From above, Ha Long Bay looks like a giant "ink painting". Hundreds of rocky islands rise and fall on the shimmering waves, both strong and soft, graceful and lively... In the heart of Ha Long Bay, there are many other wonders with their own unique beauty.

There are places where the islands cluster together and look like they are stacked on top of each other from afar, but there are also places where the islands stand horizontally and vertically, forming a line that runs for tens of kilometers like a wall. These are beautiful caves such as Sung Sot, Thien Cung, Trinh Nu, Dau Go, Me Cung. Dau Go Cave is colorful with stalactites of all shapes.

The World Natural Heritage Ha Long Bay has special geological and geomorphological values that are unique in the world. (Photo: Minh Duc/VNA)

Bo Nau Cave welcomes visitors with its arched rolling door of countless stalactites hanging down softly like willow branches. Sung Sot Cave is beautifully discreet and deep with stalactites shaped like wild chickens, toads, dragons, waterfalls... Standing out with its system of beautiful rocky islands and caves, Ha Long Bay was dubbed by the great national poet Nguyen Trai as "a wonder of the earth standing in the middle of the sky."

Ha Long Bay was twice recognized as a world heritage site (in 1994 and 2000) and was voted a new natural wonder of the world (in 2012).

This place has special aesthetic values with mountain ranges and stone caves that date back millions of years and especially a diverse ecosystem, an important resource that needs to be preserved and conserved to maintain ecological balance.

Ha Long Bay is also a place of high biodiversity with tropical marine ecosystems such as mangrove ecosystems, coral reef ecosystems, seagrass ecosystems, tropical forest ecosystems and especially unique agricultural ecosystems.

These ecosystems are distributed in an area with a relatively mild climate, average sea water temperature from 19-25 degrees Celsius, a very favorable living environment for living species.

Scientists have recorded that on the islands of Ha Long Bay, Bai Tu Long and Cat Ba, there are more than 500 species of higher plants and 50% of these plants have medicinal value; there are 66 species of amphibians and reptiles, 77 species of birds and 22 species of mammals.

On November 13, 2023, the super yacht Celebrity Solstice (Malta nationality) docked at Ha Long International Passenger Port, bringing nearly 2,700 European and American tourists. (Photo: Thanh Van/VNA)

Regarding marine and coastal ecosystems, scientists have recorded that in Ha Long Bay, Bai Tu Long and Cat Ba there are more than 570 species of benthic animals, more than 400 species of plankton, about 180 species of coral, over 150 species of fish, nearly 150 species of seaweed, seagrass and 19 species of mangrove plants.

It is rare to find a heritage site that combines so many particularly attractive elements of natural landscape, geology, biodiversity and profound historical and cultural values like Ha Long Bay.

With outstanding values in terms of landscape, geology and geomorphology, and being the center of an area with many similar elements including Bai Tu Long Bay to the Northeast, Cat Ba archipelago with Cat Ba Bay and Lan Ha Bay to the Southwest, Ha Long Bay converges favorable conditions for developing a diverse tourism economy.

Coming to Ha Long Bay, tourists can participate in scientific research activities, sightseeing, swimming, boating, parachuting, diving to explore coral reefs, and recreational fishing.

Types of cruise tourism in Ha Long Bay include daytime tours of the Bay, afternoon tours to watch the sunset on the Bay, night cruises to see the Bay at night combined with squid fishing, and even being able to row a boat yourself to explore the Bay.

In September 2023, Ha Long Bay-Cat Ba Archipelago (in Quang Ninh province and Hai Phong city) was also recognized as a World Natural Heritage./.

According to Vietnam+

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/vinh-ha-long-lot-top-55-diem-den-dep-nhat-the-gioi-de-chiem-nguong-post955240.vnp

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