Ha Long Bay-Cat Ba Archipelago

Ha Long Bay-Cat Ba Archipelago (Quang Ninh Province and Hai Phong City, in the Gulf of Tonkin, Northeast Vietnam) is located ca. 150 kilometers from Hanoi capital. Covering an area of ca. 2,000km2 and including ca. 2,000 islands and islets, mostly made of Lower Carboniferous and Carboniferous-Permian limestones and mostly uninhabited and unaffected by humans, Ha Long Bay-Cat Ba Archipelago is a spectacular seascape of limestone pillars, cones and towers of tremendous diversity of forms and shapes, of which Cat Ba Island (Hai Phong City), ca. 200km2 in area, is the largest. Between the pillars, cones and towers are numerous marine closed lakes and fault-controled channels. Many large-sized islands feature several levels of essentially dry, caves that had been formed on-land, while most islands and islets are carved in by several levels of sea notches and “foot-caves” that are actively formed by the current sea actions. The exceptional scenic beauty of the site is complemented by its great biodiversity. Three archaeological cultures, i.e. Soi Nhu (18,000-7,000 years AD), Cai Beo (7,000-5,000 AD) and Ha Long (5,000-3,500 AD), interrupted perhaps by repeated sea level fluctuations and climate changes, have been identified in this area.