Falling in love with Ha Long: a wonderful city

Located in Quang Ninh province, about 178km from the centre of Hanoi, Ha Long is the largest provincial city in Vietnam, and also a wonderful city that has enough strength to hold visitors back. Once you have been there, I'm sure you will never want to come back home.

Because of the close distance that can be easily reached within two hours sitting on a bus, there is no direct flight from Hanoi to Ha Long, but if you are from faraway places, you can book a flight to Van Don International Airport, and then take a bus or a taxi to Ha Long, which only takes you about one and a half hour. I highly recommend that you should spend at least 2 days here, as there are many things for you to explore.

The first place that I recommend you to visit is Quang Ninh Museum, which located inside the city centre, so it is convenient for you to go to other places from there. The ticket price for visitors is about 40.000VND (about S$2), which is so cheap for learning about Quang Ninh's culture and natural ecosystem. The museum has an impressive appearance when looked from outside, it looks like a black coal- which is the symbol of the province, as Quang Ninh is famous for coal mine and therefore has the nickname "Mine land". The quality of Quang Ninh's coal has been proven all around the world, and mining has been one of the symbol of this area for a long time. When visiting the museum, you are suggested to visit from the highest level to the lowest, from culture to ecosystem. This place has three floors. The highest floor provides visitors with information about the mining industry of the province. Being displayed in this area is a model that provides an overview map of the mining area. There are also a lot of objects being displayed, such as miners' tool, vehicles to transport coals, some coals sample, and even a model representing exploitation in coal mine, and you can go inside the model to experience as well. The third floor also helps you learn about the culture, as Quang Ninh's ethnic minority's daily life and culture are also on display, such as clothes, market, housing and musical instruments. I'm sure you will be surprise by the provice's rich culture. This floor also displays objects that has been used during Ha Long Carnival, one of the biggest festivals in the year.

Moving on to second floor, you can see the objects that represents Quang Ninh's history, from BC to contemporary time. Being displayed here are some Bronze Drums, stones and at the end of the room, is to display objects that is collected in Quang Ninh during the war in the middle of 20th century.

The first floor, and also my favourite floor, is about the ecosystem, both on the land and in the sea. There are hundreds of flora and fauna samples that are being displayed, which is enough for you to see how rich in nature the province is. However, the most interesting thing in this room is the whale bone, which is too big for me to take the whole photo from near distance.

Other from Quang Ninh museum, there are still a lot of things to enjoy there. You can go on a cruise to enjoy the breathtaking view of Ha Long Bay, which has been recognized as the World's Natural Heritage by UNESCO thrice. Or on a sunny day, you can give yourself a day relax on the sunny beaches. Ha Long's beaches are all clean, clear and quiet, so you can have wonderful moment there. The reason that I call Ha Long a wonderful city is that I never feel bored and tired there. No matter how far I have walked, how high I have climbed, and how hot it is, it seems that the further I go, the healthier I become. Now I know the reason: Ha Long is the city of fresh air and ocean scent, creating its healing power.

Another aspect that makes me fall in love with this city is that Ha Long is the mixture of modern city, countryside and mountainous area. Although the city now has shopping malls, luxurious brands, enormous entertainment park and most dwellers own cars, it still has the atmosphere that you never can find in the city. Skycrapers intermingle with hills and mountains, that makes a breathtaking landscape that should be seen once in a life time.

There are also a lot of things to see near Ha Long City: Yen Tu mountain, Van Don island and Mong Cai- a nice border city when you can easily make a trip to China via Mong Cai border gate, to name a few.

When you have time and want to travel to somewhere having both city and mountain vibe, Ha Long is a perfect choice. I guarantee that you will never regret once you get there.