Vietnam Geography
Vietnam Geography
Vietnam stretches over 1600km along the eastern coast of the Indochinese Peninsula. The country's land area is 330,566 sq km including water. Vietnam has 3,451km of coastline and 3818km land borders: 1555km with Laos, 1281km with China and 982km with Cambodia.
The country is S-shape, broad in the North and South and very narrow in the center where at one point is only 50km wide.
Three-quarter of the country consist of mountains and hills, the highest of which is 3143m-high Phan Si Pan in the Hoang Lien Mountains in the Northwest of Vietnam. The Truong Son Mountains, which form the central highland, run almost full length of Vietnam along its border with Laos and Cambodia.
The largest city in Vietnam is Ho Chi Minh City (usually still called Saigon), followed by Hanoi, Hai Phong and Da Nang.
The country's two main cultivated areas are the Red River Delta (15,000 sq km) in the North and Mekong River Delta (60,000 sq km) in the South.
Vietnam Geology
There are several notable geological features found in Vietnam, but the most striking by far are the karst formations. Karst consists of irregular limestone in which erosion has produced fissures, sinkholes, caves and underground rivers.
The northern part of Vietnam has a spectacular assemblage of these formations, notably around Halong and Bai Tu Long and Tam Coc. At Ha Long and Bai Tu Long bays, with nearly 3000 limestone islands stick out of the sea like vertical fingers pointing towards the sky. At Tam Coc, the karst formations are similar except they are all still above sea level. And Tam Coc is famous as Ha Long bay on land.
In the south there is a less impressive collection around the Ha Tien area in the Mekong River Delta. The Marble Mountains near Danang in central Vietnam are yet another example.
The western part of the central highlands is known for its red volcanic soil, which extremely fertile, but mostly flat and not too scenic.
