Ho Chi Minh City (Sai Gon)

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is Vietnam's commercial headquarter, brash and busy , with a keen sense of its own importance as Vietnam emerges from years of austerity to claim a place in the "Asian Tiger" economic slugfest. Located on the Saigon River, Ho Chi Minh City is Vietnam's major port and largest city, with an estimated population of over eight million people, most of whom cruise the town's clogged arteries on an estimated three million motorbikes. True to its reputation, the city is noisy, crowded, but the central business district is rapidly developing in steel-and-glass precision to rival any city on the globe. The old Saigon still survives in wide downtown avenues flanked by pristine colonials. Hectic and eclectic, Ho Chi Minh City has an attitude all its own.

Saigon is a relatively young Asian city, founded in the 18th century, but its history tells the story of Vietnam's recent struggles. Settled mainly by civil war forces fleed from north Vietnam along with Chinese merchants and refugees, Saigon quickly became a major commercial center in the late 1800s. With a very convenient protected port along the Saigon River, the city became a confluence in Indochina for goods passing from China and India to Europe. Places like today's popular tourist stop Ben Thanh Market were abuzz with activity. When the French took over the region about that time, in the 1880s, they called the south "Cochin China," Annam being central Vietnam and Tonkin is the north. Saigon became the capital. We owe the wide boulevards and grand colonial facades of central District 1 to years of French control and influence. After the French left in 1954, Saigon remained the capital of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) until national reunification in 1975.

After the progressive economic reforms, which opened Vietnam to foreign investment, aid, and cooperation, set the town on its feet. The city boomed while FDI flow is coming, led mostly by Asian investors (from Japan, Korea, and China). Now the future looks bright for this burgeoning “Tiger capital” claiming for a economic hub of indochina region.

There are two distinct seasons in Saigon: The always hot (average 28°C) and rainy season lasts from May to November, dry season from December to April.

Some of Saigon's tourism highlights include the Vietnam History Museum ; the War Remnants Museum ; and Cholon, the Chinese District, with its pagodas and exotic stores. Dong Khoi Street -- formerly fashionable Rue Catinat during the French era and Tu Do, or Freedom Street, during the Vietnam War, is once again a strip of grand hotels, some dating from the colonial era, new chic shops and boutiques, and lots of fine dining and cafes. Saigon's food is some of the best Vietnam has to offer, its nightlife sparkles, and the shopping here is fast and furious. The city is also a logical jumping-off point for excursions to southern destinations including the Mekong Delta, the Cu Chi Tunnels, and Phan Thiet, Nha Trang, Vung Tau beaches and Phu Quoc island.

Posted in: Ho Chi Minh,The South