Visiting and discovery Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park

Phong Nha – Ke Bang is located in Quang Binh province of the North Central Coast region and covers an area of 2,000sqkm of limestone zone together with 70km of grotto and cave system. The park is the perfect combination of Phong Nha Cave and Ke Bang forest surrounding the area. It is featured mostly with tropical forest, which makes its flora become interesting and diversified in compared with other national parks. More than one thousands of tree species are discovered by biologists with enchanting names, of which some groups are evergreen trees and hardly found elsewhere. When setting foot on the park, tourists will also have chances of visiting the typically special flora here; namely many trees on the limestone mounts. Moreover, the fauna of Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park is absolutely particular since there have been a lot of types of animal species still roaming the park including black bears, tigers, elephants, etc… Many other reptile, amphibian species and primates also choose the park as their home in which some of them are never seen before and listed in the Vietnam’s Red Data Book, even the World Red Book of Endangered Species.

Another striking feature of the park comes from its cave and grotto systems at the number of caves up to 300 with many significant geomorphic features, namely underground rivers, dendritic caves, dry caves… for interested parties to explore and enjoy. In fact, both Vietnamese and British scientists have been discovering only 20 among 300 caves with some widely known caves such as Vom, Thien Duong, Tien Son, Phong Nha, Son Doong…For many visitors, Phong Nha and Son Doong appear to be the most well – known caves when describing the park. Phong Nha is famous for its charming rock formation, containing 14 grottos, with the underground river at the length of 13,969 meter. As the tourists entering deeply into the cave, they will see that the large stalactites and stalagmites are getting more and more fantastic, brilliant and illusory when flashing bright light on them. In other extent, Son Doong was the most recent discovery in April 2009 and was recognized to be the largest cave in the world. It is said that Son Doong is five times larger than Phong Nha, which was once considered the biggest cave in Vietnam. Such giant dimension with a deep fast-flowing underground river inside will create a special feeling for anyone exploring the cave that they seem to be extraodinarily small in front of gigantic, mysterious appearance of Son Doon cave.

With admirable beauty, Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park is the great, continuous change of earth’s history, the region’s geologic, geomorphic history. As the park fully satisfies the criteria of UNESCO’s appraisal scale, it was recognized as a world natural heritage site by this organization. Under the development of means of transport at present, many tourists may access the park by various forms by road, rail or air. They will be brought many chances of participating tourist activities held by local travel agencies ranging from Tour for expedition of caves and grottos in boats, Ecotourism to Mountain climbing, trekking. Such activities definitely enable them to enjoy the beauty of the park in the most natural, historical way, which will indirectly help Vietnam enhance the fame of its landscape and promote its image not only in the country itself but also to the foreign nations