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HCMC at a glance | HCMC Location | HCMC History | Getting around HCMC | HCMC Attractions | Tours originating HCMC

HO CHI MINH CITY AT A GLANCE:

Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam covering an area of 2,029 square km with a population nearly 6 million.  The southern part of Vietnam is crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers and canals, the largest being the Saigon River.  The Port of Saigon, established in 1862, is accessible to ships weighing up to 30,000 tons, a rare advantage for an inland river port.  The climate is generally hot and humid. The annual average temperature is 27oC. The hottest month is April and the coldest is December.  HCMC is not only a commercial center but also an industrial, commercial, cultural, scientific, technological and tourist center.  The city is the second most important in Vietnam after Hanoi. The main ethnic groups populating the area are the Kinh and Hoa. The central city area is still called Saigon. Today Ho Chi Minh City is very much the heart of Vietnamese business and entrepreneurs. Incomes here are typically twice that of Hanoi and the city’s skyline is rapidly changing, reflecting the sharp influx of foreign trade within the last decade. And yet for all this modernity the city still retains its connections to the past, particularly in Cholon, Saigon’s Chinatown. Here dozens of elegant temples and pagodas can be seen. The French too left their mark here – the city has many street cafes and patisseries where fresh croissants can be purchased. HCMC is the heart and soul of Vietnam. It's a bustling, dynamic and industrious center, the largest city, the economic capital and the cultural trendsetter. The streets, where much of the city's life takes place, are a myriad of shops, stalls, stands-on-wheels and vendors selling wares from blankets on sidewalks. The traffic roars. The jackhammers of progress pound the past into pulp. The city churns, ferments, bubbles and fumes. Yet within the teeming metropolis are the timeless traditions and beauty of an ancient culture. HCMC is a century old city. From this city, highways run to all Southern provinces. The terminal station of the trans-Vietnam railway is located in HCMC. The city is also a cluster of hundreds of small rivers and channels watering the Cuu Long Delta. Tan Son Nhat airport is the largest and most important airport of Vietnam, located 7km from the city. The climate in HCMC is distinctively seasonal. The dry season lasts from November to April, when there is much sunshine and dry wind. The average temperature is 26°C. The rainy season begins in May and ends in October characterized by sudden heavy rains. The average temperature is 29°C. In general, the climate of HCMC is tropical, it is hot but mild thanks to the sea. Humidity is 80%, low when compared with other regions of the country.  

LOCATION:

Ho Chi Minh City (former Saigon) is situated by the Sai Gon River in the center of the Cuu Long delta and the Southeastern part of South Vietnam. The city is located 1,725km south of Hanoi and 50km west of the Eastern Sea. HCMC has 12km of coastline. The port of Sai Gon was built in 1862. At present, it is accessible to 50,000 tone vessels, which is one of its advantages.
HISTORY:
Some 300 years ago, at the beginning of the 17th century, the Vietnamese fleeing the insecurity resulting from the continuous wars between the two rival families, the Nguyen and the Trinh lords, came and settled in the Mekong Delta. They cleared new lands, which became Gia Dinh province at the beginning of the 19th century. On a bank of the Ben Nghe River there appeared an urban center, Ben Nghe, including a big market, Cho Lon, and a street, Sai Gon. It was the embryo of the present city of Sai Gon-Cho Lon.  Over the past centuries, Saigon, once praised as the "Pearl of the Far East," was known as an important trading center for Chinese, Japanese, and Western merchants who traveled upstream the Saigon River to Pho Island. In 1859 the city was captured by the French and became the capital of Cochinchina; one of the 3 colonies that Vietnam was split into. From 1956 until its dramatic demise in April 1975, Saigon was the capital of the US-backed Republic of Vietnam.

GETTING AROUND:

Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat International Airport hosts flights from many major international airports, as well as domestic flights from eleven centers. If you can't travel directly to Ho Chi Minh, the next best route is via Bangkok or Hong Kong. Buses run to the city from Cambodia and Laos, while buses and trains also link HCMC to most major towns in the country. The streets of Ho Chi Minh are not a place for the faint-hearted, so you'd be well-advised to put yourself in the hands of an expert. Metered taxis, cyclos (pedicabs) and motorbike 'taxis' run the route from the airport to town, with official taxi meters in $US. Unless you're happy about paying four times the going rate, avoid the airport Taxi Booking Desk. Cyclos are the most popular and hair-raising form of transport among travelers. They're cheap, everywhere, and the usually helpful drivers are happy to steer you around all day for a small fee. Taxi rental is also a good deal if you're headed further out of town. Probably because the routes and timetables are a constant mystery, foreigners rarely make use of the few buses in the city, with the hard-core adventure traveler preferring to rent a moped or bicycle. If you're more interested in the journey than the destination, HCMC is a good city for walking around, with one drawback - the traffic. Learn to cross roads by observing locals: they don't sprint towards the other side for a very, very good reason. Take it slowly, avoiding any sudden movements or panic, and you'll probably survive for a day or two. Because Ho Chi Minh stretches along the Saigon River, many people enjoy seeing the sights from a boat. Small boats are easily hired, and many destinations are located along the banks of the river or one of several long canals.
 

ATTRACTIONS:

Central Ho Chi Minh City's streets are jam-packed with young locals cruising the town on bicycles and motorbikes, out to see and be seen. The Municipal Theatre area is the hub for young hipsters. Entertainment ranges from disco and karaoke in the larger hotels, loud Western music in bars such as the Hard Rock Cafe, dancing at the Rex Hotel or experiencing traditional Vietnamese music at the Conservatory of Music. Most forms of entertainment can be found in downtown HCMC along Mac Thi Buoi Street. Once known as the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes, The War Remnants Museum includes exhibits and photographs of 'Some Pictures of US Imperialist Aggressive War Crimes in Vietnam' including the My Lai Massacre, human embryos, genetically deformed babies and innocent civilians being tortured. An array of US armored vehicles, artillery pieces, bombs and infantry weapons are displayed in the courtyard. You can also see a guillotine used by the French to decapitate troublemakers in the riots of the 1920s and a model of the famous tiger cages used by the South Vietnamese to house VC prisoners on Con Son Island. The Historical Museum was built in 1929 by the Societe des Etudes Indochinioses. It was formerly named Blanchard dels Brosse. A big statute of President Ho Chi Minh stands in the main lounge of the museum. The museum has an excellent collection of artifacts illustrating the primitive age, bronze age, the Tran dynasty and the Le Dynasty. Take a look at the array of musical instrument especially the special monocord of the one string musical instruments. There are many valuable relics taken from Cambodia's Angkor Wat. The Reunification Palace was built in 1868, originally named the Norodom Palace. It was built for the French Governor-General of Indochina. A striking modern architecture was built when the original buildings were damaged by bombs. Rebuilt in 1962, it comprises of a ground floor, 3 main floors, two mezzanines and a terrace for helicopter landing. The palace includes many tastefully decorated rooms such as the reception room, the cabinet reference room, the study rooms, the credentials presentation room and the banquet room. It also has a basement with a network of tunnels connecting to the telecom center and war room and one of the longest tunnels which stretch all the way to the Revolutionary Museum. The grounds outside contain one of the first tanks to burst through the gates of the palace to signify the end of the Vietnam War as well as the fighter plane which dropped further bombs towards the end of the war. The Ben Thanh Market, formerly the main railway terminal, is the largest of the markets scattered throughout the city. A wide variety of goods are available, from imported electronics to imported perfumes. The Notre Dame Cathedral was built by the French from 1877 to 1880. Its two high bell towers were built the neo-Romanistic style and it is located near the Tu Do (Dong Khoi) Street, the former red-light district. The Presidential Palace is now called the Reunification Conference Hall and was built as a modern administration center and is where the war and the American involvement in Vietnam ended in April 1975, with tanks invading the compound. Cholon, HCMC's Chinatown includes the Binh Tay Market, the An Quang Pagoda (District 5) and the scenic Thien Hau Temple. The Vinh Nghiem Pagoda is a modern Japanese-style Buddhist temple, easily one of the largest and most impressive in HCMC. HCMC boasts an astonishing, mind-numbing number of pagodas (places of worship). The oldest of these is Giac Lam Pagoda, which dates from 1744. Ten monks live at this Vietnamese Buddhist pagoda, which also incorporates Taoism and Confucianism. It retains much of its traditional layout, structure and ornamentation, not having been worked on since 1900. Many other pagodas in HCMC have been substantially altered by modernist transformations. Ornate tombs greet visitors at the entrance to the compound, as does a gleaming white statue of Quan Thew Am Bo Tat, the Goddess of Mercy. Inside, there are photographs and portraits of monks from the past and an impressive sanctuary with countless gilded figures. Prayers are held four times daily, and consist of a rare, traditional blend of chanting, bells, gongs and drums. The Binh Soup Shop is a real soup shop that was the secret headquarters of the Viet Cong in Saigon during the conflict. Prior to the massive Tet Offensive, when the VC mounted a huge campaign right across Vietnam and actually stormed the US embassy in Saigon, the soup shop was the planning base. Its waiters, waitresses and cooking staff were all VC infiltrators. The Dragon House-Wharf is a large architectural project, built in 1862 on the bank of the Sai Gon River as the office of a waterway company. From there, in 1911 the 21-year-old Nguyen Tat Thanh (President Ho Chi Minh) departed for his overseas voyages and, at present, this is the commemorative house to President HO Chi Minh. The Zoo and Botanical Garden were built during 1864 and 1865. At first, many precious species of plants were brought from India, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, then rare animals were also raised. A bridge across the Thi Nghe Channel links the part reserved for growing plants and that for animals. At present, thousands of plants grow in the Garden, including species from Africa and America. Hundreds of animals, birds and reptiles are also cared for here, so this is the biggest zoological garden of the country and the largest entertainment place of the city.  The Cu Chi Tunnels are located about 40km (25 miles) from HCMC in an area that was controlled by the VC through its now-legendary system of tunnels. At the height of the war, the tunnels stretched from Saigon through to the Cambodian border; in Cu Chi district alone there were over 250km (155 miles) of tunnels, some several stories deep. This district is known nationwide as the base where the Vietnamese mounted their operations of the Tet Offensive in 1968. These days, some of the tunnels - enlarged and upgraded - are open to the public, and give a fair idea of the conditions within the system. At their peak, the system of tunnels included kitchens, living areas, hospitals and a network of trap doors to guard against gas and water attacks.