H? Long Bay ("descending dragon bay") is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and popular travel destination in Qu?ng Ninh Province, Vietnam. Administratively, the bay belongs to H? Long City, C?m Ph? town, and is a part of Vân Đ?n District. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various shapes and sizes. H? Long Bay is a center of a larger zone which includes Bái T? Long Bay to the northeast and Cát Bà Island to the southwest. These larger zones share a similar geological, geographical, geomorphological, climate and cultural characters.
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H? Long Bay has an area of around 1,000 miles, including 1,960–2,000 islets, most of which are limestone. The core of the bay has an area of 200 miles with a high density of 775 islets. The limestone in this bay has gone through 500 million years of formation in different conditions and environments. The evolution of the karst in this bay has taken 20 million years under the impact of the tropical wet climate. The geo-diversity of the environment in the area has created biodiversity, including a tropical evergreen bio system, oceanic and sea shore bio system. H? Long Bay is home to 14 endemic floral species and 60 endemic faunal species.
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Historical research surveys have shown the presence of prehistoric human beings in this area tens of thousands years ago. The successive ancient cultures are the Soi Nh? culture around 18,000–7000 BC, the Cái Bèo culture 7000–5000 BC[6] and the H? Long culture 5,000–3,500 years ago. H? Long Bay also marked important events in the history of Vietnam with many artifacts found in Bài Th? Mount, Đ?u G? Cave, Bãi Cháy.
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500 years ago, Nguy?n Trãi praised the beauty of H? Long Bay in his verse L? nh?p Vân Đ?n, in which he called it "rock wonder in the sky". In 1962, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of North Vietnam listed H? Long Bay in the National Relics and Landscapes publication. In 1994, the core zone of H? Long Bay was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.