Public vote sought for Ha Long Bay as world natural wonder
17:21 04/03/2009

      The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) is calling on the public to vote en masse for selecting Ha Long Bay as one of the world’s seven natural wonders.

The tourism administration agency is encouraging both Vietnamese citizens and foreigners to get behind a campaign to name the World Heritage site of Ha Long Bay as a nominee for selection as one of the seven natural wonders in the world.

The appeals follows a program launched by the Switzerland-based New Open World calling for people worldwide to nominate and vote natural monuments and landscapes as world natural wonders.

The organizers clarify on www.natural7wonders.com that the nominated won­ders must be real natural landscapes, and they will select a list of candidates for final voting based on opinions from all over the world gathered on the English-language website.

The final results will be announced on August 8, 2008, or 13 months after New Open World disclosed the world's new seven artificial wonders in Portugal.

The organizers list water and sea, cave and grotto, coastline and cliff, forest and wood, glacier, forest and natural reserve among the categories to help people identify and nominate their natural wonders.

They also name Ha Long Bay in northern Quang Ninh province, some 165 kilometers from Hanoi, as a valid example for the nomination.

The nomination example has caught the attention of local tourism officials as well as the media, which has given wide coverage over the past week to the appeal, urging both locals and foreigners to vote for the UNESCO-recognized bay as a natural wonder.

VNAT head Hoang Tuan Anh said it was wonderful to propose Ha Long Bay as a world wonder as this was a channel to advertise the bay in particular and Vietnam's tourism spots in general.

"It is certain that VNAT will have appropriate approaches to make the most of this opportunity to introduce the country's hidden charms to holiday makers worldwide," he told the Tuoi Tre newspaper.

Anh revealed that the beautiful landscape of Ha Long Bay will be at the center of commercials about Vietnam's tourism hotspots to be aired on CNN in the third quarter of this year.

The bay, whose name means “Descending Dragon”, covers more than 430 square km and is dotted with nearly 800 limestone and islands that rise spectacularly from the ocean, and is renowned for diverse geographical features such as a unique system of caves that were formed by the encroaching sea.

Geographical attractions aside, Ha Long Bay is home to a diverse ecological system that includes mangrove forests, tropical forests and coral reefs that are inhabited by more than 1,000 species of fish and marine animals.

Many of the islands also support floating villages of fishermen who ply the shallow waters for over 200 species of fish. The islands are also home to many species of birds, bantams, antelopes, monkeys and iguanas.

Source: TTXVN, Tuoi Tre – Compiled by Thu Thuy

Source : thanhniennews.com