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Ngoc Vung, or Gem Island,
is a pretty site sitting between the Net Islet and
Phuong Hoang (Phoenix) Island, in the Van Don District.
From above, Ngoc Vung 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 Chi 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 Chau (Ngoc Chau)...
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 artifacts 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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