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Where the Dragon Descended, Ha Long Bay

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Ha Long Bay is in North Vietnam near the Chinese border.

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The landscape around the bay is extraordinary.

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This quiet port has received an increasing number of visitors from all over the world

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since its addition to the World Heritage List in 1994.

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Ha Long in Vietnamese means descending dragon.

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The bay was named after a local legend which says that a dragon descended from the sky

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and spat out thousands of pearls when Vietnam was being attacked by foreign ships.

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The pearls then became a multitude of small islands

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and prevented the enemy from advancing further.

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Ha Long Bay is also known as the Guilin on the sea

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because the seabed, which is a sunken limestone plateau,

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connects all the way to Guilin in China.

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This is an exceptional example of such a great number of limestone islands

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spreading out over such a large area.

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There are some peculiar shaped rocks.

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Two rocks here are facing each other.

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The Vietnamese named them Fighting Cocks Islands.

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Cock fighting is a national passion in Vietnam.

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This is the Dog Rock.

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On another side of Ha Long Bay, there is a village built on the sea, a village on water.

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The local people built houses on rafts.

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A woman cradles a baby.

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Another does her washing.

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The main source of income is fishing.

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People live here with the blessing of the sea.

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The children even row to school.

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Ha Long Bay is a remarkable example of world heritage.