It traverses a spur of the larger Annamite Range that juts into the South China Sea on the border of Đà Nẵng and Huế, near Bạch Mã National Park.

Historically, the pass was a physical division between the kingdoms of Champa and Đại Việt from 1306 until Vietnamese invasion war in 1471.

During the 1st century A.D., the Chinese general Ma Yuan (Mã Viện), after pacifying northern Vietnam, advanced south and established the southern border of the Hán empire by setting up columns of bronze, possibly at Hải Vân.

[1] In Top Gear series 12's Vietnam Special, Jeremy Clarkson called this route "one of the best coast roads in the world.

A poem by Nguyễn Phúc Chu (1675–1725) describes Hải Vân as "the most dangerous mountain in Vietnam" (Vietnamese: Việt Nam hiểm ải thử sơn điên).