Bach Long Vi
Encyclopedia
Bach Long Vi island is located in the Gulf of Tonkin
, about halfway between Hai Phong (Vietnam
) and Hainan Island (China
). The island is an offshore district of Haiphong
City. Fishing comprises the majority of economic activity in the Gulf of Tonkin, and Bach Long Vi is a major nursery and harvesting area for fish eggs. More than 50 species of commercial fish are abundant in the area (ADB 1999).
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 sea, 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
meaning "Descending Dragon", 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).Before the 20th century, the island used to be called "Vô Thủy" which means "no water" since there was no water source on the island.
According to Li Dechao, before 1950s
, Nightingale Island (Yeying Is.; Chinese: ; Pinyin
: Yèyīng Dǎo) is the former toponym of Island. And Fushui Isle (Chinese character: ; Pinyin
: Fúshǔi Zhōu;Vietnamese:"Phù Thủy Châu" meaning "pearl floating on water".) is the name used among both Danzhou Hainan
Chinese and Vietnamese fishermen. This name was for one of the earliest Vietnamese villages on the island. Nowadays there are still some remains of this village.
. There are no other significant exposed land masses within 75 km of the island.
In 1887, a convention between China (Qing Dynasty
) and France made Qing government ceded the island to French Indochina
(Annam Protectorate). However, this was not an acceptable result for China. In the contemporary published map of People's Republic of China and other nations, this island still remained a part of China（Goode's World Atlas, Rand McNally, 1933). Besides, some foreign scholars regarded this island had been China's territory at least to 1950. In 1920, after finding out a water source, Vietnamese people from Quang Yen, Vietnam
has been living in Bạch Long Vĩ island. Then, in 1937 French Indochina’s Bảo Đại Kinh established a military post and administration system called “lý trưởng” in order to manage inhabitants on this island.
During the World War II, Japanese army forced the French out of Indochina and seized the island from Bao Dai
's administration.
In 1949, the Chinese Communist won the Chinese Civil War
against the Chiang Kai-shek
's army.
In 1954, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) asked People's Republic of China
to help them keep Bạch Long Vĩ island on be half of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam due to the lack of warships
In 1955 the People's Republic of China
drove the Chiang Kai-shek
's army away and seized the island.
On January 16, 1957, China
's government returned the island to North Vietnam
's government. On that day, the Prime Minister of Vietnam signed the Decree number 49/Ttg which stipulated that Bạch Long Vĩ island is a “Xã” (Village) and belong to Haiphong City. In this year, a Fish Farm Co-operative (Hợp tác xã Nông ngư), which had 93 workers and 22 hectares of land and 13 ships, was established in this island.
On December 9, 1992, Vietnamese government signed the Decree Number 15/NĐ/CP which stipulated that Bạch Long Vĩ island is a district which belongs to the city of Hai Phong.
Currently, according to the article on Baidu.com, some people believe that China's altitude is vague. There's neither claim nor renounce of Nightingale Island. The position of this island on the Chinese altas is vague. Morover, in the convention on Gulf of Tonkin
signed between the Vietnamese government and the Chinese government, China
respects the Vietnamese sovereignty over the island and there is no dispute over the island
, including stork
s, turtle doves
, drongo
s and swamphens
. Local Vietnamese authorities have programs in place to protect these birds during their migratory season.
.
Gulf of Tonkin
The Gulf of Tonkin is an arm of the South China Sea, lying off the coast of northeastern Vietnam.-Etymology:The name Tonkin, written "東京" in Hán tự and Đông Kinh in romanised Vietnamese, means "Eastern Capital", and is the former toponym for Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam...
, about halfway between Hai Phong (Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
) and Hainan Island (China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
). The island is an offshore district of Haiphong
Haiphong
, also Haiphong, is the third most populous city in Vietnam. The name means, "coastal defence".-History:Hai Phong was originally founded by Lê Chân, the female general of a Vietnamese revolution against the Chinese led by the Trưng Sisters in the year 43 C.E.The area which is now known as Duong...
City. Fishing comprises the majority of economic activity in the Gulf of Tonkin, and Bach Long Vi is a major nursery and harvesting area for fish eggs. More than 50 species of commercial fish are abundant in the area (ADB 1999).
Name
In Vietnamese, "Bạch Long Vĩ" means "The Tail of the White Dragon". This name has its root from an ancient Vietnamese legend. According to the legend, when the Vietnamese were fighting ChineseChinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
invaders, the gods sent a family of dragons to help defend the land. This family of dragons began spitting out jewels and jade
Jade
Jade is an ornamental stone.The term jade is applied to two different metamorphic rocks that are made up of different silicate minerals:...
. These jewels turned into the islands and islets dotting the sea, 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
Ha Long
Hạ Long also known as Hong Gai, Hon Gai and Hongay, is the capital city of Quang Ninh province, Vietnam. The city mainly lies on Bai Tu Long Bay, which is part of the Hạ Long Bay. It is located at about 160 km northeast of Hanoi...
meaning "Descending Dragon", 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).Before the 20th century, the island used to be called "Vô Thủy" which means "no water" since there was no water source on the island.
According to Li Dechao, before 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
, Nightingale Island (Yeying Is.; Chinese: ; Pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
: Yèyīng Dǎo) is the former toponym of Island. And Fushui Isle (Chinese character: ; Pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
: Fúshǔi Zhōu;Vietnamese:"Phù Thủy Châu" meaning "pearl floating on water".) is the name used among both Danzhou Hainan
Hainan
Hainan is the smallest province of the People's Republic of China . Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, of its land mass is Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name...
Chinese and Vietnamese fishermen. This name was for one of the earliest Vietnamese villages on the island. Nowadays there are still some remains of this village.
Geography
Bach Long Vi sits 58 meters above sea level, and is a plateauPlateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...
. There are no other significant exposed land masses within 75 km of the island.
History
Historically, before the 20th century, Bach Long Vi island was not inhabited due to the lack of water resource .In 1887, a convention between China (Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
) and France made Qing government ceded the island to French Indochina
French Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
(Annam Protectorate). However, this was not an acceptable result for China. In the contemporary published map of People's Republic of China and other nations, this island still remained a part of China（Goode's World Atlas, Rand McNally, 1933). Besides, some foreign scholars regarded this island had been China's territory at least to 1950. In 1920, after finding out a water source, Vietnamese people from Quang Yen, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
has been living in Bạch Long Vĩ island. Then, in 1937 French Indochina’s Bảo Đại Kinh established a military post and administration system called “lý trưởng” in order to manage inhabitants on this island.
During the World War II, Japanese army forced the French out of Indochina and seized the island from Bao Dai
Bao Dai
Bảo Đại , born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy , was the 13th and last ruler of the Nguyễn dynasty. From 1926 to 1945, he was king of Annam under French ‘protection’. During this period, Annam was a protectorate within French Indochina, covering the central two-thirds of the present-day Vietnam...
's administration.
In 1949, the Chinese Communist won the Chinese Civil War
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...
against the Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
's army.
In 1954, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) asked People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
to help them keep Bạch Long Vĩ island on be half of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam due to the lack of warships
In 1955 the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
drove the Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
's army away and seized the island.
On January 16, 1957, China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
's government returned the island to North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
's government. On that day, the Prime Minister of Vietnam signed the Decree number 49/Ttg which stipulated that Bạch Long Vĩ island is a “Xã” (Village) and belong to Haiphong City. In this year, a Fish Farm Co-operative (Hợp tác xã Nông ngư), which had 93 workers and 22 hectares of land and 13 ships, was established in this island.
On December 9, 1992, Vietnamese government signed the Decree Number 15/NĐ/CP which stipulated that Bạch Long Vĩ island is a district which belongs to the city of Hai Phong.
Currently, according to the article on Baidu.com, some people believe that China's altitude is vague. There's neither claim nor renounce of Nightingale Island. The position of this island on the Chinese altas is vague. Morover, in the convention on Gulf of Tonkin
Gulf of Tonkin
The Gulf of Tonkin is an arm of the South China Sea, lying off the coast of northeastern Vietnam.-Etymology:The name Tonkin, written "東京" in Hán tự and Đông Kinh in romanised Vietnamese, means "Eastern Capital", and is the former toponym for Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam...
signed between the Vietnamese government and the Chinese government, China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
respects the Vietnamese sovereignty over the island and there is no dispute over the island
The core issue to be settled in the Gulf of Tonkin is which principle should be used in order to divide the Gulf. In this context, the impact of islands is of crucial importance and, in particular, the Vietnamese controlled Bach Long Vi Island. The first question is whether or not it qualifies as an island according to the provisions of the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (1982 UNCLOS). If it does impact on the tracing of a line of equidistanceEquidistance principleThe equidistance principle or principle of equidistance is a legal concept introduced in maritime boundary claims.The phrase denotes a concept of political geography and international law — that a nation's maritime boundaries should conform to a median line equidistant from the shores of...
if this principle is applied in the Gulf of Tonkin. Logically, Vietnam would take the position that Bach Long Vi Island should have its full impact in any agreement on how to divide the Gulf. On the other hand, China has an interest in minimising the impact that the Island would have on any agreed delimitation. This could be done by, either arguing that Bach Long Vi is not an island in accordane with the provisions of 1982 UNCLOS or, by arguing that its impact should be minimised and possibly even be disregarded. For China to argue that it is not an island would be counterproductive as China has earlier controlled the island and has claimed that the island was inhabited before it was handed-over to Vietnam in the late 1950s.
(The Management of the Border Disputes Between China and Vietnam and its Regional Implications by Assoc.Prof.Ramses Amer, Co-ordinator, South-East Asia Program (SEAP), Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, and Senior Research Adviser, Department of Research Co-operation-SAREC, Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA), October 2000)
Wildlife and Biodiversity
The island is home to several species of migratory birdsBird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...
, including stork
Stork
Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family Ciconiidae. They are the only family in the biological order Ciconiiformes, which was once much larger and held a number of families....
s, turtle doves
Turtle Dove
The European Turtle Dove , also known as Turtle Dove, is a member of the bird family Columbidae, which includes the doves and pigeons.-Distribution & Status:...
, drongo
Drongo
The drongos are a family of small passerine birds of the Old World tropics, the Dicruridae. This family was sometimes much enlarged to include a number of largely Australasian groups, such as the Australasian fantails, monarchs and paradise flycatchers...
s and swamphens
Purple Swamphen
The Purple Swamphen , also known as the African Purple Swamphen, Purple Moorhen, Purple Gallinule, Pūkeko or Purple Coot, is a large bird in the family Rallidae . From its name in French, talève sultane, it is also known as the Sultana Bird...
. Local Vietnamese authorities have programs in place to protect these birds during their migratory season.
Conservation Issues
Due to its distance from the mainland, Bach Long Vi is used as a base for offshore fishing. The marine resources in the immediate vicinity of the island are subject to over-harvesting and destructive fishing practicesDestructive fishing practices
The phrase destructive fishing practices has been featured in international fisheries literature for around three decades. No widely accepted definition of the phrase exists, and this will almost certainly remain the situation, given very different national and industry perspectives...
.