Co To Island

Far out at sea, on the northeastern sea frontier of the country, lies an island. To reach it, people take a fast boat for about an hour from the pier at Ao Tiên. On both sides of the boat rise ranks of rocky islands and the open waves. Then Cô Tô appears ahead, a green line of trees standing close to white sand. For many people, that first sight explains why the island's name means a belt of peace in Sino-Vietnamese.

Cô Tô is now a special zone, an outlying island area of Quảng Ninh. The zone has 71 islands, large and small, but only three are inhabited. One is Cô Tô Lớn. The other two are Thanh Lân and Trần Island. All the land above the water comes to less than 54 square kilometers. About 6,700 people live across the zone, from 13 ethnic groups.

These waters did not always carry the name Cô Tô. Long ago the area was called Chàng Sơn. In 1832 the poet and court official Nguyễn Công Trứ came out here to found villages, and he renamed the place Hướng Hóa. Then, after 1889, the name Cô Tô appeared in official records, and it has stayed ever since. People explain the name through Sino-Vietnamese. In that reading, cô means a belt, and tô means quiet and peaceful. Cô Tô is a belt of peaceful islands.

But peace here does not mean emptiness. Cô Tô holds a very particular chapter of history.

On May 9, 1961, President Hồ Chí Minh set foot on this island. He told the soldiers and people of Cô Tô that Hanoi was far away, but the Party and the government always cared for the people and soldiers of the islands.

That visit left a mark like no other. The people of Cô Tô asked to raise a statue of him, and he agreed. Cô Tô is the only place in the country where a statue of him was raised in his lifetime. The first statue was unveiled on May 22, 1968. Its sculptor was Nguyễn Văn Quế. After several upgrades, the granite statue standing today is 4.5 meters tall. With its pedestal, it reaches 9 meters. On January 18, 2022, the Prime Minister recognized the President Hồ Chí Minh Memorial Area on Cô Tô as a Special National Monument.

The granite statue stands for a bond between the leader and the fishing people farthest out from the mainland, a bond kept for more than 60 years.

Beyond the statue, a lighthouse stands on top of a hill, 118 meters above the sea. The French built it at the end of the 19th century, and it is one of the oldest lighthouses in the north. Its beam reaches 30 nautical miles, close to 60 kilometers. For generation after generation of fishermen heading out to sea, it has been a trusted guiding light in the waters of the northeast.

From the hilltop, all of Cô Tô Lớn spreads out below. Thanh Lân Island lies to the northeast, and the Gulf of Tonkin stretches wide in every direction. Early in the morning, the sunrise seen from here over the Cầu Mỵ rocks is one of the most memorable sights of Cô Tô. Visitors often call them the Móng Rồng rocks, the Dragon's Claw. The rocky shore runs for about 2 kilometers. Its natural stones fit against one another like the skin of a dragon. When the morning light falls on the wet rocks and the blue sea, it is easy to see why many people say Cô Tô has the finest sunrise of the northern coast.

Few people know that Cô Tô also keeps a natural wonder rarely found on a sea island. In Nam Đồng hamlet, about 9 kilometers from the island's center, there is an old-growth forest of chõi trees. It covers more than 10 hectares. The old chõi trees are over 20 meters tall and hundreds of years old. Their trunks are so supple that they stand firm against the sea wind and the salt all year round. Vietnamese scientists consider it the largest old-growth chõi forest in the country, and the only one. In April the chõi trees bloom white, and the whole forest turns a color hard to imagine in the middle of the sea.

The sea around Cô Tô holds still more. The Cô Tô-Đảo Trần Marine Protected Area is recognized by the state as one of 16 national marine protected areas. It covers more than 18,400 hectares in all. Its core zone takes up more than 13,200 hectares. In recent years, dolphins, whales and even sea turtles have been seen around the islands many times.

Near the center lies the beach known to visitors as Tình Yêu, Love Beach. Farther out is Hồng Vàn beach, 7 kilometers from the center. Hồng Vàn has a feature all its own. Thanh Lân Island stretches along the water offshore like a natural wall, blocking the wind from the open sea. So the water at Hồng Vàn stays as calm as a lake all year, gentle enough for a slow swim with no waves to worry about.

From Bắc Vàn beach, small boats cross to Cô Tô Con. The little island has no people and no electricity, only sand and coral. Snorkeling over the coral here is one of the rare experiences the northern seas still offer.

When night falls, the lighthouse beam sweeps steadily across the dark sea from its hilltop, 118 meters up. For 30 nautical miles around, every boat can see that light. Fishermen setting out more than a hundred years ago also looked this way to know where they were. Cô Tô, the belt of peace in the northeast, still stands there just the same.