According to local legend, when the
Vietnamese were fighting Chinese invaders, the gods sent a family of
dragons to help defend the land.
This
family of dragons began spitting out jewels and jade. These jewels
turned into the islands and islets dotting the bay, linking together to
form a great wall against the invaders.
The people kept their land safe and
formed what later became the country of Vietnam. After that, dragons
were interested in peaceful sightseeing of the earth, and then decided
to live here. The place where the mother dragon descended was named Hạ
Long, the place where the dragon’s children attended upon their mother
was called Bái Tử Long island (Bái: attend upon, Tử: children, Long:
dragon), and the place where the dragon’s children wriggled their tails
violently was called Bạch Long Vỹ island (Bạch: white- color of the foam
made when Dragon’s children wriggled, Long: dragon, Vỹ: tail).
