The turtle of Hoan Kiem Lake sounds terribly lonely. Such experts as there are on this most elusivecreature, Vietnam's only slightly less fabulous version of the Loch Ness Monster, contend furiously over its likely age and its species - even its sex is unknown - but they do seem to agree on its size. Its shell is thought to measure a metre and a half long by just over a metre wide, which makes its extremely rare sightings in a body of water that stretches no more than 600 metres from shore to shore, in the middle of Hanoi, all the more mysterious.


Legend has it that the turtle first appeared in the 15th century, when it arose from the waters of the lake to reclaim from King LeLoi, out boating with his courtiers, a magic swordlent him by the gods toexpel a rampaging Chinesearmy. Professor Ha Dinh Duc, recently retired from Hanoi National University and probably the foremost authority on the turtle, thinks the real animal could indeed be that old: the adult of a hatchling the king himself may have released into Hoan Kiem some 600 years ago (Galapagos turtles live almost half as long). He also insists this awesomely long-lived beast is the last of its kind - that when it does finally die, it will die truly alone.

Hanoians revere the legendary denizen of Hoan Kiem, in part because of its putative survival through so many centuries of their country's history and in part because of its role in a tale of Vietnamese victory overa great, invading power. What many of them do not believe - given that its snout is only apparently glimpsed above the water every decade or so and that it has never been caught - is that the turtle exists.

believeable, though what cryptid story is without its flaws? I just wondered...don't a majority (if not all) aquatic turtles lay eggs outside the water...you'd think it'd be seen more often, unless they are correct with it being the last of its kind, then a hundred or so years with no activity on shore would seem reasonable...just the ramblings of a mind with not enough work to do. lol

They're real
http://www.chelonia.org/rafetus_gallery.htm
The pics labeled Rafetus swinhoei are it.

Full fact sheet about it.

However, some still claim that the Hoan Kiem Turtle is a different species, but this should prove that it is indeed real.

Why can't all crypto photographs be that good?

The head look alot like a seal in some of the photographs, wonder if this creature is to blame for some other lake monsters?

There are six living specimens of the species known to exist (2004). Five are in China including one in the Beijing Zoo, one in the Shanghai Zoo, one in the Suzhou Zoo, and two in the Western Gardens of a temple in Suzhou. The sixth living Rafetus is in Hoan Kiem Lake in the center of Hanoi, Vietnam.