Quan Lan

This guide to Quan Lan in Ha Long follows Tran Khanh Du, a Vietnamese general disgraced and then abruptly recalled in early 1288 to defend the port of Van Don, right here on the island. It traces the rice convoy a Mongol commander named Zhang Wenhu was bringing to feed a starving army further inland, and the strait where thirty warships waited for it. Stand at the shoreline to take in the same channel the fleet had to pass through.