In Vietnamese mythology, the Yangtze giant softshell turtle is also the living representative of the Great Turtle God, Kim Qui. The story goes something like this: Kim Qui's master, a deity called the Dragon King, gave Emperor Lê Lợi his legendary sword, known as "Heaven's Will." With it, Lê Lợi freed Vietnam from a thousand-year rule by the Chinese. After his success, he was approached by Kim Qui, who asked for the sword back for the Dragon King. Lê Lợi handed over the legendary sword to the Turtle God and named the spot "The Lake of the Returned Sword," or Hoàn Kiếm Lake.

While the last turtle god of Hoan Kiem perished in 2016 ("It was like losing part of our culture," Hoang Van Ha, a conservationist with the Asian Turtle Program (ATP) told The New Yorker, the species is not wholly gone -- just almost.