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Ngọc
Vừng, or Gem Island, is a pretty site sitting between the Nét
Islet and Phượng Hoàng (Phoenix) Island, in the Vân Ðồn
District. From above, Ngọc
Vừng 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 Hồ 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 “Ngọc” such as Ngọc
Vừng (dazzling pearl), Minh Châu (Ngọc
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 Hạ Long culture.
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