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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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