Informing Lao Dong Newspaper, a representative of the Ha Long Bay - Yen Tu World Heritage Management Board said that after the survey trip to Soi Sim Island by the inter-sectoral delegation recently, the unit is continuing to coordinate with relevant departments, agencies, and branches to supplement and complete procedures to report to the Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee for consideration.
These include conditions related to infrastructure, safety, rescue, and operation management of Soi Sim beach to ensure safe and civilized sightseeing and swimming activities.
According to representatives of the Ha Long Bay - Yen Tu World Heritage Management Board, in the immediate future, try to open Soi Sim beach to serve tourists this summer; while other construction items on Soi Sim island require a lot of time because they are related to procedures and processes for land allocation, forest allocation...
Up to this point, the entire Soi Sim beach area has been synchronously renovated; the system of seaside huts, pedestrian paths along the foot of limestone mountains and service works have been renovated.
Soi Sim beach, belonging to Soi Sim island, located in the core area of Ha Long Bay, has just been included in the list of 100 most beautiful beaches in the world in 2026 by a beach ranking organization based in the US.
Soi Sim Island is a beautiful land island located in the middle of Ha Long Bay. The island is named Soi Sim by local fishermen because there are endless sim trees on the island.
In addition, on the island, there is a primeval forest with a rich flora and fauna, including more than 78 plant species and 32 animal species. Among them are many endemic plant species of Ha Long Bay such as: phất dụ núi, bông mộc, hài vệ nữ hoa vàng...
Lao Dong Newspaper has had many articles reflecting on the waste of Soi Sim island due to problems related to the Soi Sim Island Animal and Plant Reserve Project.
This also wastes hundreds of billions of VND of a private enterprise implementing this project.
The Soi Sim Island Animal and Plant Conservation Area project was assigned to Ha Long Service Joint Stock Company in 2011.
In 2015, Soi Sim One Member Limited Liability Company took over the project. In addition to investing in piers at both ends of the island, operating houses..., this company has replaced all concrete roads with wood and opened new wooden roads weaving through the forest. Just replacing them with wood material alone, the investment capital for this item has exceeded the initial estimate by about 28 billion VND.
The total amount of money the enterprise has invested in this project is up to about 200 billion VND, but has not been exploited to date.
Currently, many construction items have deteriorated or are almost completely damaged due to many years of not being used.
Over the years, despite many meetings and directing documents from the Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee and relevant departments and agencies, the problems have not been resolved.
The company and the tourism community in Ha Long Bay hope that Quang Ninh will soon have a plan to handle Soi Sim island, to minimize damage to businesses and not to waste tourism resources as well as affect the rights of tourists.
Soi Sim beach is 1 of 2 beaches in Ha Long Bay licensed to operate to serve tourists and is located on route number 2.
Before tourists repeatedly wondered why the name Soi Sim was on the entrance ticket but the boat did not bring tourists in, the Ha Long Tourist Boat Association once proposed removing the name Soi Sim from the ticket to reduce tourists' questions and frustrations.
Currently, Ha Long Bay is very lacking in beaches to serve tourists even though there are about 200 large and small sandy beaches with beautiful landscapes, located at the foot of rocky mountains. Among these, only 2 beaches on Soi Sim and Ti-top islands are announced to welcome guests. However, Soi Sim island has been "closed" for many years, so currently only Ti-top beach remains.
This causes Ti-top beach to often be overloaded, while tourists visiting other routes do not have a beach to use.
