Sun Xinsheng: Travel Notes of Vietnam (XVII) Jipo Island

Jipo Island, located in the south of Halong Bay, covers an area of 140 square kilometers. Take a boat from Xialong Port 1 hour to the north bank of Jipo Island, and after 40 kilometers, stay at Xia Lan Bay on the south bank of the island. The hotel is close to Jipo town, and it takes 20 minutes to walk to the town. Near the bay is a big fishing port with many fishing boats, mostly hardwood motor boats. Binhai Road is a new asphalt road, which is very wide. Most of the houses on the roadside are five or six floors, and most of them are restaurants and fish stalls next door. The town is very lively, but it's a mess. Yellow taxis and motorcycles pull individual travelers all over the street. Fish market, vegetable market and the market selling clothes and sundries are integrated into one, which is a good place for citizens and tourists. I seem to have returned to Guangzhou Huanghua Night Market in the 1980s, and I feel isolated. The once lovely bay is now surrounded by an ugly concrete hotel. Fortunately, the charming beauty of ugly islands and harbors is hard to hide.

The essence of the island is in the southeast corner of Xia Lan Bay. Three or four bathing beaches are divided by steep rocks, forming a closed and self-contained seaside water park. Most tourists come from China, Russian and Northern Europe. China people are timid, and most of them walk and play in the water on the beach. Westerners are unrestrained, even if the weather is so cold in February, they dare to go to the sea to fight the wind and waves, and then lie on the beach half naked in the sun, but in fact, it is difficult to see the sun most of the time. The beer houses and bars on the shore are not popular, but there are always people patronizing them, and the business is passable. Teams of white teenagers often rent motorcycles and sprint on nearby mountain roads, which is really a bit of a medieval "knight" flavor. More people ride mountain bikes, and the vehicles are basically made in China. Sometimes it's exciting to be at the seaside and at the top of the mountain. In the middle of the island, Zhengfeng is a high mountain with dense forests and beautiful scenery. It has been turned into a national forest park in Vietnam, and it is said that the golden-headed langur, an endangered animal in the world, lives here. There are isolated limestone mountains at the lower level, with lakes, waterfalls and caves dotted around. The mountain trail in the forest is suitable for bird watching and hiking. Cliff armor, jungle clothes, beach garland. Jipo Island is becoming one of the symbols of sports eco-tourism in Vietnam to attract business.

Jipo Island, bordering the Baiteng River mouth, looks at Hongji in the north and Haiphong in the south, which is the barrier of the two major maritime portals in northern Vietnam. And it is the largest island in Halong Bay, with excellent agriculture and fishery, which is very suitable for people to live in and has an important strategic position. During the "Beibu Gulf Incident" in the 1960s, a number of US military aircraft carriers gathered intensively near the Beibu Gulf, and hundreds of fighter planes bombarded Haiphong, Hongji (Dragon City this summer) and Hanoi. Kippu Island was an important battlefield in the air-ground battle of that year. In a huge cave 10 km north of Jipo town, China once built a huge air defense hospital here, which was called "hospital cave" by the locals. When we went to visit, it was already in ruins, submerged by weeds. Shu Ming said that it is hard to imagine that this remote island has left so many traces of China.

Not far from the south of Jipo Island, the main branches of the Red River flow into Haikou, and the coastline is straight, mostly mudflats, so there is no danger to defend. From the north to the land border between China and Vietnam, it is more than 0/00 kilometers from north to south/kloc. There are hundreds of connected islands, and there are countless reefs near the island. Like the karst island reef on Halong Bay, it can not only guard the coastal defense, but also be suitable for offshore shipping. I have been to Bailongwei Peninsula near Fangchenggang many times, and the famous "Three Islands Scenic Area of Jing Nationality" is among them. This was the starting point of the "Ho Chi Minh Trail on the Sea" during the period of resisting US aggression and aiding Vietnam. A steady stream of aid materials and weapons set sail from here, along the route composed of endless islands, braving the bullets, all the way south until Halong Bay entered the inner port. One thing I have to mention here is that there is an island called Bailongwei Island on the connecting line between Jipo Island and Dongfang County in Hainan Province. In the 20th century, during the Anti-American War and Vietnam Aid, at the request of Ho Chi Minh, we gave the island originally belonging to Guangdong to Vietnam, and helped Vietnam to set up Tong Guan Station on the island, which directly played an important role in the change of the war situation at that time. What is worrying is whether the profit-making party can not forget history after achieving its goal.