At the ca. 500 meter high summit of the 21 kilometer long Hai Van Pass coastal mountain road (fig.) is the Hai Van Gate and Fortress. In the 1st century AD, this area was the southern border of the Chinese Han Empire and it later became the border of Dai Viet with the Kingdom of Champa.

Being of major strategic importance, the French built a fortress at its top when they controlled Indochina. The French-built fort was later adapted with gun towers and used as a wartime bunker by South Vietnamese and US armies during the Vietnam War.