Ha Long Bay - One Of The Most Popular Travel Destinations

Ha Long (literally: Descending Dragon) Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Quang Ninh province. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes. Ha Long Bay is a center of a larger zone which includes Bai Tu Long bay to the northeast, and Cat Ba islands to the southwest. These larger zones share similar geological, geographical, geomorphological, climate and cultural characters. Ha Long Bay has an area of around 1,553 km², incuding 1,960 islets, most of which are limestone.


Historical research surveys have shown the presence of prehistorical human beings in this area ten of thousands years ago. Nowadays, Ha Long Bay is one of the most popular travel destinations in Vietnam.


500 years ago, Nguyen Trai praised the beauty of Ha Long Bay in his verse Lo Nhap Van Don, in which he called it "rock wonder in the sky". In 1994 the core zone of Ha Long Bay was listed by UNESCO in its World Heritage Sites. Together with Nha Trang Bay and Lang Co of Vietnam, Ha Long Bay is recognized as one of the most beautiful bays of the world.


Local legend has it that long ago, when the Vietnamese were fighting invaders, the gods sent a family of dragons to help defend the land. This family of dragons began spitting out jewels and jade. These jewels turned into the islands and islets dotting the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. The people kept their land safe and formed what later became the country of Vietnam. After that, dragons were interested in peaceful sightseeing of the earth and then decided to live here. The place where Mother Dragon flew down was named Ha Long, the place where the dragon children attended upon their mother was called Bai Tu Long island (Bai: attend upon, Tu: children, Long: dragon), and the place where the dragon children wriggled their tails violently was called Bach Long Vy island (Bach: white - colour of the foam made when Children Dragon wriggle, Long: dragon, Vy: tail).


The most remarkable geological events of Ha Long Bay’s history in the last 1,000 years include the advance of the sea, the raising of the bay area and the strong erosion that has formed coral and pure blue and heavily salted water. This process of erosion by seawater has deeply engraved the stone, contributing to its fantastic beauty. Present-day Ha Long Bay is the result of this long process of geological evolution that has been influenced by so many factors.


It is because of all these factors that tourists now visiting Ha Long Bay are not only treated to one of the true wonders of the world, but also to a precious geological museum that has been naturally preserved in the open air for the last 300 million years.


A community of around 1600 people live on Ha Long Bay in fishing villages. They live on floating houses and are sustained by capture fishing and marine aquaculture (cultivating marine biota).


Seafood in Ha Long is diversified. Cuttlefish, oyster, cyclinae, prawn (penaeidea, panulirus, parapenaeopsis...), sipunculoideas, nerita, charonia tritonis are among the varieties appearing in popular local dishes.


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How To Use Chopsticks

If you love Vietnamese food, you’ll need the full experience by eating them with chopsticks. Chopsticks are small tapered sticks used in pairs of equal length as the traditional eating utensils of Vietnam, China, Korea and Japan. Korea is the only one of these chopstick nations that use sleek and thin metal chopsticks. The other three countries use wooden chopsticks that vary in length and thickness.


While Vietnam, China, Japan and Korea had long included chopsticks as part of their traditional eating utensils, the use of chopsticks in a limited sense spread to other Asian countries in recent centuries with the influx of Chinese immigrants in Southeast Asia.


Watching others using chopsticks can make it look so easy, but when you try it, you end up asking for a fork. Here's how to say goodbye to that fork for good and put those chopsticks to work:

1. Pick up the first chopstick with the middle finger and thumb. Stiffen your hand for a firm grip. Have the broad end of the chopstick lay on the part where your thumb and index finger connect. Rest the narrow end on the tip of your ring finger, and hold it in place with the tip of your middle finger. (Hint: try holding it the way you hold a pen to write. It might rest on your ring finger or your middle finger, held in place by your index finger. Place the chopstick then lift your index finger so it can hold the second chopstick)

2. Grip the second chopstick with your index finger. Place your thumb over the second chopstick. Adjust your grip to a more comfortable position. Make sure the narrow tips of the chopsticks are even with each other to help prevent them from crossing or being unable to "pinch" the food.

3. Hold it steady. This chopstick should not move when you attempt to pick up food. Alternatively, hold the first chopstick steady and move the second (top) chopstick by moving the tip of your index finger up and down while the thumb remains relatively steady, acting like a pivot point. The top chopstick remains pressed to the index finger from the tip through the first joint. The movement comes from flexing the joint closest to the knuckle. Straightening your index finger opens the chopsticks and bending it closes them, with perhaps a slight flexing of the thumb to keep the chopsticks lined up with each other. (Note: this alternative is different from the photos in how the top chopstick is held. The movement comes from the top chopstick, not the bottom one, so the top chopstick is held so that it can be moved easily. Use the method that is comfortable for you)

4. Practice opening and closing the chopsticks. Make sure the broad ends of the chopsticks do not make an "X" as this will make it difficult to pick up food.

5. Pick up food at a good angle (try roughly 45 degrees from the plate), slightly lift it up. If it feels unstable, put it down and try again.

There are different etiquettes of using chopsticks. In Vietnam, you should avoid these things below:

1. Avoid sticking your chopsticks into your rice straight down. It's bad manners, because it resembles the incense that family members burn to mourn a dead relative. It also resembles the manner in which rice is symbolically offered to the dead in Vietnam, Japan, Korea and China. When you are finished, you should put the chopsticks over the bowl and lay them flat.

2. It is proper to always use two chopsticks at once, even when using them for stirring.

3. One should not pick up food from the table and place it directly in the mouth. Food must be placed in your own bowl first.

4. Chopsticks should not be placed in the mouth while choosing food.

5. Chopsticks should never be placed in a "V" shape when done eating, it is interpreted as a bad omen.

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