Situated on the eastern margin of the Indochinese peninsula, Vietnam borders the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin and South China Sea. Its closest neighbours are China, Laos and Cambodia and the nation is a part of the biologically and culturally important Mekong River Delta region.
The vietnames highlands are densely forested and the lowlands are humid and hot, both areas are home to a large number of different plants and animals. Since the process of cataloguing the Vietnamese wildlife is still in its infancy new species are added on a regular basis. In addition to iconic mammal species like the two newly described species of Muntjac deer, there are also over 800 species of wood, 100 species of amphibians and over 150 species of reptiles to be found in this comparatively small nation, and the recorded number of plant species in the country surpasses 2,000. Click here for more info on tropical flowers in Vietnam and around the world.
The country is located in an area where the winds bring airborn seed from the north, south and west which has made this area extremly biological diverse and the forrest are home to a multitude of trees, flowers, fruits and berries. One of only four previously unknown large land animals to be discovered during the 20th century can be found in Vietnam and is a type of wild ox belonging to a new genus. Two new species of muntjac deer has as earlier mentioned been discribed in Vietnam recently, both of the new species was founf in the same nature preserve, the Vu Quang nature reserve.
Vu Quang is located in a remote densely forested part of Vietnam in the Ha Tin province which is located on the north central coast. The habitat consists of steep mountains covered in dense rainforest and served as a base for Phan Dinh Phung, the Vietnamese revolutionary who led rebel armies against French colonial forces in the late 1800s. The mountains in the preserve capture air from the South Chinese sea and is therefore very hot and humid. The preserve has a very wet climate with constant rain during the rainy season and a lot of fog during the dry season. All areas in the park is wet and slippry (algae grows everywhere) and it is therefore very hard to explore the park. It is so hard that not even hunters from the area want to enter the forrest.
A marvel of nature that is easier to access it the 30 meter high Ban Gioc waterfall the 4th highest waterfall in the world along a national border. this spectacular waterfall separates the Guangxi Province in China from the Cao Bang province in Vietnam and is located approximately 272 km north of Hanoi. On top of the waterfall there is a stone tablet engraved in Chinese and French saying that it marks the border.
Another fantastic sight near the waterfall is the amazing Tongling gorge which can only be accessed by going through a cavern from another gorge. (A gorge is a deep valley between cliffs, typically carved out of the landscape by a river.) The isolated Tongling Gorge is home to a high degree of endemic plants that can be found nowhere else in the world. This Gorge is said to contain treasure and it is said that locals have fond treasures in it in the past, this is due to the fact that it used to be a hiding place for bandits.
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