By reseacher Trần Chí Dõi, according to some records since the end of the 18th century, this name was created by the Tanka people, who could be pirates that often traveling to Hạ Long Bay.

Initially it was just an adjective to point out a stone bund protruding at the edge of the bay (bãi đá lô nhô sát mép vịnh) and there was very little attention.

On 24 August 1886, Bavienpour established the coal company Công ty Pháp mỏ than Bắc Kỳ (French: Société Francais des Charbonneges du Ton-Kin; SFCT).

[10] Coal still forms the basis of Cẩm Phả's local economy, with other industries including quarrying, lime production, port, agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

Besides, two sopranos Nông Xuân Ái and Tiến Hỷ ; tenor Quang Phòng ; V-pop songstress Hồ Quỳnh Hương.

In the field of literature, writer Võ Khắc Nghiêm came from a coal miner, so his life was attached to the works of Cẩm Phả and the people of that land.

However, starting in the late 1980s, when the subsidy policy was eliminated by the government of Vietnam, Cẩm Phả sports were increasingly stagnant and has been degraded very quickly.

The policy of remuneration was increasing, which was proportional to the narrowing of the coal mining scale, which is often considered by the Vietnam press as the cause of this leading sports industry degenerated.

About the beginning of the 2000s, when the equitization plan was applied, the positive economic growth was forced the Town People's Committee to consider shaping a movement that was their strengths.

Besides football, badminton, tennis, shooting, swimming, canoeing, rowing and golf are very successful competitions of Cẩm Phả sports world.