The legend of Ha Long Bay is that: Once upon a time, soon after the Việt people established their nation in peace and calm, invaders came. Because of loving the Viet people, the Jade Emperor sent the Mother Dragon along with her child Dragons coming down to earth to help the Viet people fight against their enermy. Right at the time invaders’ boats were rushing to the shore, the dragon landed down on the earth. The mother dragon and her children used their magic powers to create thousands of small islands to stop the enemy's steps by immediately sending out from their mouths a lot of pearls, which then turned into thousands of stone islands emerging in the sea like great walls challenging the invaders’ boats.The fast boats couldn’t manage to stop and crashed into the islands and into each other and broke into pieces.

The mother dragon and her children saw the charm of mountains and waters of our country and so asked the Jade Emperor to stay there and never came back to the heavens.