Phú Quá»Âc () is the largest island in Vietnam. Previously organized as Phú Quá»Âc City (which also combined nearby islands and the distant Thá» Chu Islands), it was Vietnam's first island municipality. The island has a total area of and a permanent population of approximately 179,480 people in 2020. On June 16, 2025, Phú Quá»Âc became one of the 13 newly established and re-organized special administrative zones of Vietnam, the only city to do so. Later on July 1, "Secretary of the City Committee" Lê Quá»Âc Anh was appointed to become the first "Secretary of the Party Committee of the special zone".
Located in the Gulf of Thailand, Phú Quá»Âc special administrative zone includes the island proper and 21 smaller islets. Dðáng ÃÂông ward, located on the island's west coast, is the island's administrative centre and largest town. The other ward is An Thá»Âi on the southern tip of the island.
Its primary industries are fishing, agriculture, and a fast-growing tourism sector. Phú Quá»Âc has achieved fast economic growth due to its current tourism boom. Many infrastructure projects have been carried out, including several five-star hotels and resorts. Phú Quá»Âc International Airport is the hub connecting Phú Quá»Âc with mainland Vietnam as well as with international destinations.
Since March 2014, Vietnam has allowed all foreign tourists to visit Phú Quá»Âc visa-free for a period of up to 30 days. By 2017, the government of Vietnam planned to set up a Special Administrative Region which covered Phú Quá»Âc Island and its peripheral islets and upgrade it to a provincial city with special administration.
The historical Phú Quá»Âc Prison was based here and was built by the French to detain captured Viet Minh fighters. Continuing into the Vietnam War, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army POWs were monitored by South Vietnamese soldiers.
The earliest Cambodian references to Phú Quá»Âc are found in royal documents dated 1615, however historians have found limited evidence of sustained Khmer presence or of formal Cambodian state authority over the island.
Around 1680, Phú Quá»Âc was part of the Principality of HàTiên, a maritime polity founded by Chinese merchant and explorer Mạc Cá»Âu under the patronage of the Cambodian king.
Mạc Cá»Âu later switched allegiance to the Nguyá» n lords and recognized the authority of the Vietnamese sovereign. He sent a tribute mission to the Nguyá» n court in 1708, and in return received the title of Tong Binh of HàTiên and the noble title Marquess Cá»Âu Ngá»Âc ().
Mạc Cá»Âu died in 1736, and his son Mạc Thiên Tứ (Mo Shilin) succeeded him. The Cambodian army attempted to liberate HàTiên in 1739 but was defeated. From then on, Cambodia did not try to retake HàTiên; it enjoyed full independence from Cambodia thereafter.
Mạc Thiên Tứ's reign saw the golden age of HàTiên. In 1758, HàTiên established Outey II as puppet king of Cambodia. After the war of the second fall of Ayutthaya, Mạc Thiên Tứ tried to install Prince Chao Chui (, Chiêu Thúy in Vietnamese) as the new Siamese king, but was defeated by Taksin. HàTiên was completely devastated by Siamese troops in 1771, and Mạc Thiên Tứ had flee to Trấn Giang (modern Cần Thá). There, he was sheltered by the Nguyá» n lords. Two years later, Siamese army withdrew from HàTiên, and Mạc Thiên Tứ retook his principality.
The French missionary Pigneau de Behaine used the island as a base during the 1760s and 1780s to shelter Nguyá» n ÃÂnh, who was hunted by the Tây Sán army. Descriptions of this mission make reference to the local Vietnamese population of the island but not the Khmer.
The British envoy John Crawfurd, en route to Siam from Singapore in March of 1822, made a stop at Phú Quá»Âc, which he transcribed as Phu-kok. His entry is as follows:
Western records in 1856 again mentioned the island: "... King Ang Duong (of Cambodia) apprize Mr. de Montigny, French envoy in visit to Bangkok, through the intermediary of Bishop Miche, his intention to yield Phú Quá»Âc to France." Such a proposition aimed to create a military alliance with France to avoid the threat of Vietnam on Cambodia. The proposal did not receive an answer from the French. An 1856 publication by The Nautical Magazine describes Phú Quá»Âc to still be part of Cambodia even though it was occupied by the Cochinchinese. The quote from the publication is:
While the war between Vietnam and France was about to begin, Ang Duong sent another letter, dated November 25, 1856, to Napoleon III to warn him about Cambodian claims on the lower Cochinchina region: the Cambodian king listed provinces and islands, including Phú Quá»Âc, as being parts of Vietnam for several years or decades (in the case of Saigon some 200 years). Ang Duong asked the French emperor to not annex any part of these territories because, as he wrote, despite this relatively long Vietnamese rule, they remained Cambodian lands. In 1867, Phú Quá»Âc's Vietnamese authorities pledged allegiance to French troops just conquering HàTiên.
In 1939, for administrative purposes, Governor General of French Indochina, Jules Brévié, drew a line demarcating a maritime boundary between Cambodia and Cochinchina, and Phú Quá»Âc remained under Cochinchina administration. After the Geneva Accords, in 1954, Cochinchina's sovereignty was handed over to Vietnam.
After mainland China fell under the control of the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, General Huang Chieh moved 33,000+ Republic of China Army soldiers mostly from Hunan Province to Vietnam, and they were interned on Phú Quá»Âc. Later, in June 1953, the army moved to Taiwan.
In 1967, the Vietnamese and Cambodian government accepted the "Brévié Line" as the maritime border. Later on, Sihanouk renewed his claim on Koh Tral (). The Vietnamese also abandoned their previous acceptance of the Brevie Line.
From 1953 to 1975, the island housed South Vietnam's largest prisoner camp (40,000 in 1973), known as Phú Quá»Âc Prison. Phú Quá»Âc was located in IV Corps Tactical Zone and was an integral part of South Vietnam's system for detaining enemy prisoners.
On May 1, 1975, a squad of Khmer Rouge soldiers raided and took Phú Quá»Âc, but Vietnam soon recaptured it. This was to be the first of a series of incursions and counter-incursions that would escalate to the CambodianâÂÂVietnamese War in 1979. Cambodia dropped its claims to Phú Quá»Âc in 1976. But the bone of contention involving the island between the governments of the two countries continued, as both have a historical claim to it and the surrounding waters. A July 1982 agreement between Vietnam and The People's Republic of Kampuchea ostensibly settled the dispute; however, the island is still the object of irredentist sentiments.
In 1999 the Cambodian representative to the Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Border Commission affirmed the stateâÂÂs acceptance of the Brevie Line and Vietnamese sovereignty over Phú Quá»Âc, a position reported to and accepted by the National Assembly.
Before 2025, it was a provincial city of Kiên Giang Province.
Phú Quá»Âc lies south of the Cambodian coast, south of Kampot, and west of HàTiên, the nearest coastal town in Vietnam. Roughly triangular in shape the island is long from north to south and from east to west at its widest. It is also located from Kampot, from Rạch Giá and nearly from Laem Chabang, Thailand. A mountainous ridge known as "99 Peaks" runs the length of Phú Quá»Âc, with Chúa Mountain being the tallest at .
Phú Quá»Âc Island is mainly composed of sedimentary rocks from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic age, including heterogeneous conglomerate composition, layering thick, quartz pebbles, silica, limestone, rhyolite and felsite. The Mesozoic rocks are classified in Phú Quá»Âc Formation (K pq). The Cenozoic sediments are classified in formations of Long Toàn (middle - upper Pleistocene), Long Mỹ (upper Pleistocene), HáºÂu Giang (lower - middle Holocene), upper Holocene sediments, and undivided Quaternary (Q).
The special administrative region of Phú Quá»Âc is officially divided into eight commune-level sub-divisions, including two urban wards (Dðáng ÃÂông, An Thá»Âi) and seven rural communes (Bãi Thám, Cá»Âa Cạn, Cá»Âa Dðáng, Dðáng Tá, Gành Dầu, Hàm Ninh).
Phú Quá»Âc is famous for its two traditional products: fish sauce and black pepper. The rich fishing grounds offshore provides the anchovy catch from which the sauce is made. As widely agreed among the Vietnamese people, the best fish sauce comes from Phú Quá»Âc. The island name is coveted and abused in the fish sauce industry that local producers have been fighting for the protection of its appellation of origin. Pepper is cultivated everywhere on the island, especially at Gành Dầu and Cá»Âa Dðáng communes. The pearl farming activity began more than 20 years ago when Australian and Japanese experts arrived to develop the industry with advanced technology. Some Vietnamese pearl farms were established at that time including Quá»Âc An.
Tourism plays an important role in the economy, with the beaches being the main attraction. Phú Quá»Âc was served by Phú Quá»Âc Airport with air links to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Tan Son Nhat International Airport, Hanoi (Noi Bai International Airport), Rạch Giá (Rạch Giá Airport) and Can Tho (Can Tho International Airport). Phú Quá»Âc Airport was closed and replaced by the new Phú Quá»Âc International Airport from December 2, 2012. Phú Quá»Âc is also linked with Rạch Giá and HàTiên by ferries. Air Mekong used to have its headquarters in An Thá»Âi.
Many domestic and international projects related to tourism have been carried out, including the latest direct flights from Bangkok to Phú Quá»Âc by Bangkok Airways, which could make Phú Quá»Âc a new tourist hub in Southeast Asia.
With the combination of Vinpearl Phú Quá»Âc Resorts and the opening of the new Vinmec Phú Quá»Âc International Hospital in June 2015, Phú Quá»Âc will add an additional source of revenue to the local economy in terms of medical services, medical tourism and medical education.
The island's monsoonal sub-equatorial climate is characterized by distinct rainy (April to November) and dry seasons (December to March). As is common in regions with this climate type, there is some rain even in the dry season. The annual rainfall is high, averaging . In the northern mountains up to has been recorded. April and May are the hottest months, with temperatures reaching .
Phú Quá»Âc has both a terrestrial national park and a marine protection.
Phú Quá»Âc National Park was established in 2001 as an upgrade of a former conservation zone. The park covers of the northern part of the island.
Phú Quá»Âc Marine Protected Area, or just Phú Quá»Âc MPA, was established in 2007 at the northern and southern end of the island and covers of marine area. The sea around Phú Quá»Âc is one of the richest fishing grounds in all of Vietnam, and the aim of the protected area is to secure coral reef zones, seagrass beds, and mangrove forests, all key spawning and nursery grounds for aquatic species, including blue swimming crabs. Among the aquatic animals in the protected area are green turtle, leather back turtles, dolphin and dugong.
Plastic waste is a growing problem in Phú Quá»Âc, and the local community has organized clean-up efforts.