Bai Tu Long National Park

Infobox_protected_area | name = Bai Tu Long National Park
iucn_category = II

|300 px
caption =
locator_x =
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location = North Vietnam
nearest_city = Hạ Long
lat_degrees = 21
lat_minutes = 6
lat_seconds = 0
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 107
long_minutes = 38
long_seconds = 0
long_direction = E
area = 157.83 km²
established = 2001
visitation_num =
visitation_year =
governing_body =

Bai Tu Long National Park (Vietnamese: Vườn quốc gia Bái Tử Long) is a protected area zone in North Vietnam. It was established in 2001, succeeding from the former Ba Mun National Conservation Zone. It is one of seven Vietnamese amphibian national parks which has both terrestrial zone and aquatic zone.

It locates within Bai Tu Long bay, which with Ha Long Bay form a impressing scenery of sea and islands. Including thousands of islands and rocks, they create one of the most beautiful bay in the world.

According to a legend, an immense dragon descended to Ha Long Bay (means ‘’Descending Dragon’’) millions years ago, dropping numerous eggs. These eggs hatched forming thoudsands of rocks and islands. The tail of the dragon extended far to the sea, forming Bach Long Vi (means ‘’The Tail of the White Dragon’’). As she backed to the heaven, she said good bye to her offsprings at the Bai Tu Long Bay (means ‘’The dragon parts the offsprings’’).

Now the Park is of Van Don district , 20 km distant from Cai Rong town.

Natural Condition

The exactly geography position is in a rectangle between 20^o55'05" and 21^o15'10" North latitude, 107^o30'10" and 107^o46'20" East longitude. It is administratively of 3 communes : Minh Châu, Vạn Yên and Hạ Long of Van Don district.

It is composed from the terrestrial area of 61.25 km² and the aquatic area of 96.58 km². The zone includes over 40 islands and rocks. They form three groups : Ba Mùn group, Trà Ngọ group and Sậu group. The aquatic area includes the sea zone between the islands and the narrow between the park area and the land area which has boundary of 1 km offshore. The National Park also include a buffer zone of approximately 165.34 km² , which locates in a larger area include 5 communes : Minh Châu, Vạn Yên, Bản Sen, Quan Lạn and Hạ Long. The total population of the core zone and the buffer zone is around 24.000.

Ecosystem

The National Park includes five kinds of ecosystems : Rain Broad Leaves Forest, Limestone Forest, Littoral Forest, Coral Area and Shallow Water Area.

The Rain Broad Leaves Forest area is mostly secondary forest. The average canopy covers 50 – 90%. It have been found 494 species belonging to 337 genera of 117 families in this type of ecosystem. Some endangered species include "Cycas balansae", "Radix marindae officinalis", "Ardisia sylvestris Pitard", "Smilax glabra", Leopard cat ("Prionailurus bengalensis"), Indian muntjac ("Muntiacus muntjak"), Small Indian civet ("Viverricula indica"), Large Indian civet ("Viverra zibetha").

The Limestone Forest area is forest growing in poor soil which the particles of limestone on rocky islands. Some rare animal found their include Serow, Rhesus macaque.

The Littoral Ecosystem in the park is small areas surrounding the islands. It has a rather large tidal variation and is biologically highly diverse with 251 species including 19 species of mangrove, 17 species of seaweed , 29 species of marine worms , 149 species of molluscs, 22 species of crustaceans and 15 species of echinoderms.

The Coral area locates from the water depths of low tide to 10m deep. 409 species was found including groupers, sea bass, crabs, snails, abalone and seaweeds.

The Shallow Water area covers a large area around the islands, beyond the tidal area and extend from 1 km to around 4 km. These area was not profoundly researched but it have found 539 species.

External links

* [http://baitulongnationalpark.vn/Main.aspx Official website]