Cat BaIsland & Lan Ha Bay guide

07Essentials

A short history of Cat Ba

Cat Ba's calm harbour hides a long and sometimes turbulent past. People have lived here for thousands of years, empires have fortified its hills, and in a single generation the island has gone from a remote fishing outpost to a national tourism hub.

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Fact sheet

First settlement
Several thousand years ago
Excavated
1938 (Cai Beo site)
Wartime hospital
Built 1963–1965
National park
1986
Bridge to Cat Hai
Tan Vu–Lach Huyen bridge, 2017
UNESCO
2023

Short answer

Prehistoric fishers lived here several thousand years ago. In the 20th century Cat Ba was fortified during the Second World War and the wars that followed, lost much of its ethnic Chinese community in 1979, gained a national park in 1986 and became part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023.

01Prehistoric fishers

In 1938 French archaeologists excavated a site near today's Cai Beo village and found stone tools, pottery and shell middens. The people of the Cai Beo culture lived here roughly 4,000–6,500 years ago, fishing and gathering shellfish in the same bays that are farmed today. Caves on the island have also yielded traces of early human presence.

02What's in a name

A popular local story explains the name 'Cat Ba', often translated as 'women's island': long ago, the women of the area supplied food to men fighting on a neighbouring island, which became known as Cat Ong, the 'men's island'. Like many place-name legends, it is better treated as folklore than history.

03Forts and wars

In the early 1940s, during the Second World War, gun emplacements and tunnels were built on the hill above the harbour, today's Cannon Fort. The guns were later used in the war against French rule and in the American War. Between 1963 and 1965 a hospital was built inside a karst hill, now Hospital Cave, to treat the wounded and shelter officials from air raids.

04A visit and a festival

On 31 March 1959 Ho Chi Minh visited the fishermen of Cat Hai and Cat Ba. The anniversary is still celebrated each spring with a fishing village festival that also opens the tourist season.

051979

During the border war with China in 1979, large numbers of ethnic Chinese (Hoa) people left northern Vietnam's coast, including many fishing families from the Ha Long and Cat Ba area. The departure reshaped the island's population and economy.

06Protection and tourism

  • 1986: Cat Ba National Park was created, Vietnam's first protected area with a marine section.
  • 1990s: Reliable electricity reached the island, and the first backpackers arrived.
  • 2004: The Cat Ba archipelago became a UNESCO biosphere reserve.
  • 2017: The Tan Vu–Lach Huyen sea bridge linked Hai Phong with Cat Hai island, shortening the trip to the ferries.
  • 2020: The cable car across the strait from Cat Hai to Phu Long opened.
  • 2023: The archipelago joined Ha Long Bay on the World Heritage list.
  • 2024: Typhoon Yagi caused heavy damage to fish farms and buildings.
  • 2025: In a nationwide administrative reform, Cat Hai district, which includes Cat Ba, became a special zone of Hai Phong.

Read next

  1. Cannon FortWartime guns, tunnels and the best sunset view over Cat Ba Town.
  2. Hospital CaveA three-storey secret hospital built inside a hill during the American War.
  3. UNESCO heritageWhy Cat Ba joined Ha Long Bay on the World Heritage list in 2023.