Pearl Farm Halong Bay

Legend has it that the hundreds of islands in Vietnam’s Halong Bay were formed by a dragon which spit jewels across the water.  I like to believe in legends, and there are certainly jewels buried deep in those waters. There are some floating villages in Halong, however with me Pearl Farm village is the most interesting which worth to visit.

Pearls have been considered as a precious natural gift endowed to countries with the advantage of having a long coastline, like Viet Nam. Therefore, Pearl culture has become a good business for Vietnam and there are two major pearl farms in Halong Bay.

With V’Spirit Cruises 3 days 2 nights itinerary, travelers will have chance to visit floating pearl farm and see how local people produce great pearls. This pearl village was established in 1995 by a Japanese organization, after years run by Japanese experts, it was transferred for Vietnamese.

Our guide will show you round the farm and the museum there and explained how the process is done. You will pass a floating raft where some kinds of oyster pearls are grown and transplanted such as South Sea pearl, Tahitian Black Pearl,…etc. After that you will see a processing room where workers transplanting oysters and understand some precious species of pearl. The last, you could see one of the workers here opening an alive oyster in front of your eyes to see pearl in side and then have look their achievement in the showroom!

Pearl farming depends largely on the sea’s environment. A polluted environment always leads to certain failure and other elements should also been taken into consideration like salinity and water depth, when raising different kinds of oysters. Under the right conditions, it takes at least five years before an oyster becomes mature enough to produce a pearl, and the success rate is about 40 percent, only a small percentage are of significant quality to fetch the very high prices. For pearls over 10mm, it might take up to seven or even ten years.

To cultivate the pearl, they open it just enough to insert a hard-shell bead and mantle tissue from an oyster that has produced a high-quality pearl in the past. Cultivation takes between 10 to 18 months and the results are truly stunning.