If Halong Bay is heaven, Halong City can be hell. Overdeveloped but underloved, the hid­eous high-rise hotels come in every shade of pastel and the beaches are definitely not the best in the region

. However, the majority of food, accommodation and other life-support systems for Halong Bay are found in Halong City. The capital of Quang Ninh province, it is sin city, with ‘massage’ heavily promoted at every hotel. The town draws large numbers of domestic tourists and, until recently, was a major magnet for Chinese tourists. Suddenly they stopped coming, giving birth to a million conspiracy theories about bankrupting hotels to buy them out.