Located right along the main road of the National Park, Cat Ba Quan Y Cave is a symbol of Hai Phong tourism. This destination not only attracts tourists with its meaningful name, but also with its unique one-of-a-kind field hospital architecture
Cat Ba Military Medicine Cave – A tourist destination combining historical elements and natural beauty (Photo: Collected)
Cat Ba Quan Y Cave is known as a cave possessing the most unique beauty in the Cat Ba archipelago area and Hai Phong tourist destination system . Although this place was once designed to serve the anti-American resistance war, it still retains its attractive and majestic natural beauty.
1. Where is Quan Y Cave?
Cat Ba Island , Hai Phong is a famous natural tourism complex of our country. Among hundreds of large and small caves, Quan Y Cave stands out because of its beauty combining natural elements and human hands.
Located halfway up the mountain, on the unique road across the island, Quan Y Cat Ba cave belongs to Hung Son cave, 13km from town. This tourist destination is located in Hai Son village, Tran Chau commune, Cat Hai island district, Hai Phong city .
This place is best known as a field hospital during the resistance war against the US. Later, the wild, authentic, and historical beauty of Quan Y cave was recognized as a historical relic as well as an attractive tourist destination.
Quan Y Cave has wild beauty with profound historical significance (Photo: Collected)
- Directions: From Cat Ba town center, to reach the cave, you can travel by motorbike in the direction of Cai Vieng ferry terminal to Cat Tien street. Then, you need to go through 1/4 street, Tung Dinh street and Tung Thu street to enter the road through Cat Ba island. Along the path, visitors will see the Military Hospital cave located on the right side of the road.
- Reference cave opening hours: from 8am to 5pm daily.
- Reference ticket price: 80,000 VND/adult, 40,000 VND/child (<1.2m).
2. Interesting things about Cat Ba Quan Y cave
2.1. History of the “name” of Quan Y cave
Military Hospital Cave on Cat Ba Island was formerly Hung Son Cave, named after a general who assisted the court in expelling the An invaders in the battle of Bach Dang River. Later, in the years 1963 – 1965, when the US stepped up its bombardment of North Vietnam, the people on the island renovated the natural limestone cave into a field hospital. From there, we got the name Quan Y cave.
The field hospital in the cave can accommodate more than 100 wounded soldiers, with 17 patient rooms and many other functional rooms. To this day, Cat Ba Military Medicine Cave is still one of the most valuable and proud Hai Phong historical relics of the island district’s people.
Cat Ba Military Hospital Cave – A place associated with the resistance war against the US (Photo: Collected)
2.2. 1-0-2 architecture at Quan Y cave on Cat Ba island
Not only known as a meaningful historical destination, Cat Ba Quan Y Cave also possesses a unique one-of-a-kind architecture, attracting all tourists who have ever visited this place.
Basically, the cave’s architecture still retains almost its entire state during the years of resistance. Therefore, during the tour, visitors will learn more about the admirable defensive thinking of their ancestors.
First and foremost, the entrance to the cave is made of a portable wooden ladder that can be installed and used in normal times and disassembled when an enemy probes or attacks. This flexible design aims to ensure military secrets and keep our soldiers and people safe in the field hospital.
Designing the Military Medical Cave with high security, ensuring the protection of soldiers and civilians in the hospital
(Photo: Collected)
Not only the stairs, the cave entrance is also arranged as a solid, solid shield with a spherical curved iron door design. The purpose of curved iron doors is to protect against bullets. When bullets hit, the spherical structure will cause bullets to fly to the sides instead of damaging the door. Right behind this solid door are 4 additional iron latches, of which 1 main latch leads to a large-scale field hospital.
Cat Ba Military Medical Cave is a typical model of the construction scale of a large field hospital, fully equipped and with space for hundreds of people. The cave architecture includes 3 floors, 17 rooms and a total area of up to 2000m2.
The first floor is a 14-room functional area with a solid reinforced concrete structure. Light along the corridor and individual equipment for each room, ensuring adequate medical examination and treatment. The 2nd and 3rd floors are natural stone caves with a cinema room, physical examination room, reception hall, guard room and rooms for officers.
Military Hospital Cave is a large-scale field hospital with creative design and profound military thinking (Photo: Collected)
The most unique feature of Quan Y Cat Hai cave is its closed structure, located inside Hung Son cave. Therefore, the entire external appearance still retains its inherent majestic and wild features. That is the poetic natural beauty that visitors will admire at the exit of the cave.
It can be seen that the Military Hospital Cave on Cat Ba Island is a historical and artistic work created from natural sources and extraordinary human creativity, despite difficult war circumstances.
