Ha Long Bay named among Asia’s most impressive UNESCO sites

The travel guide and information website Roughguides has listed Viet Nam’s Ha Long Bay among 10 of the best UNESCO sites in Asia.

Photo by falco

Ranked at the third, Ha Long Bay comprises 1600 islands and islets, most of which are uninhabited. The karst landforms are characterised by coastal erosional features including grottoes and arches.

The emerald green waters of the Gulf of Tonkin in north-eastern Viet Nam are sprinkled with awe-inspiring limestone formations covered by rainforest, the website said.

Recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage site since 1994 for its thousands of natural islands, the bay is a legendary world and one of the most magnificent scenic spots in Viet Nam as well.

In 2000, the organization recognized it as a World Heritage for the second time for its outstanding geographical and geomorphological values.

Other spots ranked in the Top 10 are the rice terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras (Philippines), Angkor (Cambodia), Volcanoes of Kamchatka (Russia), the historic centre of Bukhara (Uzbekistan), the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Japan), the Great Wall of China, Mountain Railways of India, Golden Temple of Dambulla (Sri Lanka), and the tropical rainforest heritage of Sumatra (Indonesia)./.