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Considered as the eighth national park of Viet Nam, Ba Be National Park is a valuable natural heritage. Covering more than 23,000 hectares, this beautiful region is a tropical rainforest area with over 410 named plant species and 300 wildlife species. It is surrounded by steep mountains up to 1554m high.
Ba Be National Park, or according to the mass, is simply called Ba Be (three lakes). In fact, this is the park’s main feature. Ba Be is three linked lakes, which have a total length of 8 km and a width of about 400m. The deepest point in the lakes is 35m. Nearly 50 kinds of freshwater fish reside there. Ba Be Lake is covered with many limestone mountain chains, which have numerous of caves and under-streams.
Puong Cave, 30m high, 300m long, with a navigable river inside – a part of Nang River, is an interesting place to visit by making a boat trip. Thousands of flitter-mice living in this cave generate many powerful odors.
Nang River flows at the foot of the limestone mountain, goes through Puong Cave to reach Ba Be Lake. It is navigable for 23 km between a point 4 km above Cho Ra and Dau Dang Waterfall, which consists of a series of spectacular cascades between perpendicular walls of rock.
Ao Tien is a small lake on the top of the mountain. The climate around here is very cool and fresh. Legend said that the fairies above always go down in this place to swim and play chess. Therefore, people name this place Ao Tien (the lake of fairy).
