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Ngoc
Vung Island
Ngoc
Vong, or Gem Island, is a pretty site sitting between the Nét
Islet and Phuong Hoàng (Phoenix) Island, in the Vân
Don District. From above, Ngoc Vong looks like a beautiful velvet
handkerchief with exquisite white edgings; it seems to float on
the water surface. On the east side of the island there is a kilometres-beach
with pure white sand. At the centre is a luxuriant benjamin fig
tree; it was under this tree that Ho Chí Minh stood and
conversed with the population in 1962 during a visit.
Formerly,
under the feudal dynasties, this island zone contained a great
quantity of rare and precious species of mother-of-pearls. At
night, fluorescent pearls would light up the whole region. So
there are several islands having name Ngoc such as
Ngoc Vung (dazzling pearl), Minh Châu (Ngoc Châu)...
During the
war against the US, the island belonged to a front of outward
islands that served as protection for the eastern waterways.
It is also
on the beach that many stone artefacts were discovered in 1937,
opening a string of excavations and archaeological research aiming
at providing some explanations of the mysteries of the ancient
Ha Long culture.
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