The 6 Best Gift & Specialty Shops in Halong Bay, Quang Ninh Province

Reviewed By 334gabrielle - Toronto, Canada

I came here as part of a Signature Royal cruise through Ha Long Bay, during our visit to the floating village and oyster farm. The listing on trip advisor says it’s closed, but it’s still open. If you are planning on buying pearls and are going on a cruise, I would highly recommend doing it here - apologies in advance for the long story about why, but I think it’s really important! I had read quite a bit about pearls from Ha Long Bay before I came, and was hoping to buy some as a souvenir. However, it seemed that while they do produce pearls in Ha Long Bay that it is a risk at many of the places/vendors that the pearls are imported from China. I read a detailed post from what seemed like a reliable source about this specific place which said the pearls were high quality and produced at the farm itself. That being said, I don’t pretend to be an expert in pearls. When we arrived by kayak you could see the oysters being farmed around the floating platform. Our guide (from the cruise) explained a bit about the different types of oysters, for eating and for making pearls. We then watched a worker demonstrate how a cultured pearl is made. It was very interesting. The showroom here is small and modest which a felt was consistent with the size of the farm, and encouraged me that the pearls were in fact cultured there. The staff were happy to help out but not at all pushy. They knew the product well. I looked at a couple of pearls and found a beautiful one that I decided I wanted to buy. I asked about the possibility of a discount, and they said no but the price seemed reasonable so I decided to buy it. I’m very happy with it. It came with a certificate of authenticity for what that’s worth - I never know how valuable that is in these cases. I had read other reviews about saying the quality of the jewelry wasn’t great, so I bought the pearl loose with a plan to get it set at home. Again, I’m not an expert but to my eye the quality appears excellent. Here is what is amazing. When we were back on the ship I got a call to my room asking me to come to the reception because there was a problem with the price of the pearl. I assumed they would say they had undercharged me (though I had checked the receipt and price carefully), but no. A woman from the shop had taken a boat to our ship because she realized they had actually significantly OVERcharged me (the price on the tag had been incorrect) and wanted to correct it. There was zero hassle doing this on my credit card and she apologized repeatedly. I cannot express how incredibly impressed I am by this level of integrity and kindness. It would have been easy to say nothing and I would have never known the difference. I am so grateful to this woman for her honesty. Of course I thanked her profusely and told her there was absolutely no need to apologize at all! It sounds cheesy, but things like this really restore my faith in humanity.