Halong bay- a wonderful landscape
Whenever speaking of Ha Long, one should talk first about the beauty of its natural landscape. Mr. James Thorsell, an expert from the UNESCO Natural Heritage Organization (UCN), assessed: “Stone Mountains rising out id the water surface in Ha Long bay form an original natural landscape endowed with magnificent values, especially its archaeological heritage. It is worthy of preservation and inclusion in the List of World Heritages as a natural Heritage”
On our planet, there is no sea area other than Ha long where thousands of fabulously shaped limestone islands spring up like gemstones twinkling on a blue carpet concentrated into a small area. Limestone rocks in Ha Long are not boring mountains bit a vivid world of fantasy. Some look like fighting cocks or a sleeping tortoise; some resemble an aged Buddhist monk pressing his two hands together to praise islands full of wonderful secrets beyond human understanding. Visiting Ha Long, many people think that they are straying into a legendary petrified word.
The beauty of Ha Long is seen not only in the mountains, water and sky but also in the limestone islands. Their abundant systems of grottos and caves, such as the magnificent Thien Cung (Celestial Palace), the imposing Dau Go (Wooden Stakes), the legendary Sung Sot (Surprise) and the beautiful Trinh nu (Virgin) or Song tien (Fairy Cave), are all related to romantic folk tales and legends. All of them appear as monumental works of the Nature-Creation.
Ha Long is only an inexhaustible resource for Vietnamese poets, musicians, painters and film producers but also an attractive theme for a great number of foreign artists, especially writers. Over 100 years ago, the French journalist John Rey praised Ha Long: “In the brilliant light of the tropical sun, the sea surface, dark and light, here and there in the shadow of Limestone Mountains, is really indescribably fanciful scenery. At sunset, it looks like a flaring fire, putting all islands into a fairyland.” The Russian poet Paven Altoconsky affirmed that Ha Long is a thousand times more beautiful than the scenery in his own country. Xiao San, a Chinese poet, said that Ha Long is the world’s unique beauty spot and could be compared with the Heavenly Garden of Eden.
In fact, it is not only writers and poets can sense the ethereal beauty of Ha Long. Almost all visitors to the bay experience moments of inspiration that rises above the earthly world of daily worries and cares. The wonderful scenery of Ha Long is like fresh holy water that can wipe away the dust of this world. Admiring the bay, everyone naturally recognizes the endlessness of the Nature as well as the limits of his short-life. They suddenly understand that they are tiny links among the predestined affinities between the Earth and the sky.
Once, on a full-moon night, an American tourist and his interpreter took a small tourist ship to wander among the legendary islands and cliffs. The wonderful scenery at night makes people more comfortable in revealing even their most private secrets. The old steersman confided that he had always tried his best to do good deeds, hoping that one day he could enter Heaven. Sitting meditatively by the side of the boat, the foreigner, surprisingly, said that he no longer believed that there could be anything as beautiful as this bay in Heaven. He was really experiencing a so-called ‘fairy moment’. The American also foretold that when the steersman left this world to settle in the Heaven, he would miss such great moments as that night when he lives in Ha Long.
The bay’s romantic and peaceful scenery is also the source for a number of love stories withnessed by stone islands, the sea and the sky. It is impossible to list the loves that have developed among the tourists in Ha Long. Many young beautiful female tour guides who take tourists from all corners to Ha Long have decided to be the daughters-in-law of this land.
The mountains, the sea and the sky of Ha Long, reflecting tourist’s emotion towards the bay, have recorded thousand of such stories.
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