, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name =
GRP (Nominal)
, blank_info = 2019
, blank1_name = – Total
, blank1_info = US$61.7 billion
, blank2_name = – Per capita
, blank2_info = US$6,862
, blank3_name =
GRP (
PPP)
, blank3_info = 2019
, blank4_name = – Total
, blank4_info = US$190.3 billion
, blank5_name = – Per capita
, blank5_info = US$21,163
, blank6_name =
HDI
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, wh ...
(2020)
, blank6_info = 0.795 (
2nd)
, area_code = 28
, area_code_type =
Area codes
, website =
, timezone =
ICT
, utc_offset = +07:00
, postal_code_type =
Postal code
A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...
, postal_code = 700000–740000
, iso_code =
VN-SG
, registration_plate_type =
License plate
A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British English), license plate (American English), or licence plate (Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identificatio ...
, registration_plate = 41, 50–59
, blank_name_sec2 =
International airports
, blank_info_sec2 =
Tan Son Nhat International Airport
Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport ( vi, Sân bay quốc tế Tân Sơn Nhất or Cảng hàng không quốc tế Tân Sơn Nhất) is the busiest airport in Vietnam with 32.5 million passengers in 2016 and 38.5 million passengers in 2018 ...
(SGN)
, blank2_name_sec2 =
Rapid transit system
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...
, blank2_info_sec2 =
Ho Chi Minh City Metro
The Ho Chi Minh City Metro (HCMC Metro, vi, Đường sắt đô thị Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, lit=Urban railway of the City of Ho Chi Minh) is a planned rapid transit network that will serve Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
Its first metro li ...
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 1698
, founder =
Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh
Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh ( vi-hantu, 阮有鏡, 1650–1700), also known as Nguyễn Hữu Kính and his noble rank Lễ Thành Hầu, was a high-ranking general of Lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu. His military expeditions into the Mekong Delta placed the r ...
, motto = (historical)
, image_shield =
Ho Chi Minh City ( vi, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh;
Northern ,
Southern ), formerly (and still commonly) known as Saigon ( vi, ;
Northern ,
Southern ), is the largest city in
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
, with a population of around 9 million in 2019.
Situated in the
southeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
region of Vietnam, the city surrounds the
Saigon River
The Saigon River ( vi, Sông Sài Gòn) is a river located in southern Vietnam that rises near Phum Daung in southeastern Cambodia, flows south and south-southeast for about and empties into the Soài Rạp, which in its turn empties into the ...
and covers about .
Saigon was the capital of
French Indochina
French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...
from 1887 to 1902, and again from 1945 until its cessation in 1954. Following the
partition of French Indochina, it became the capital of
South Vietnam until the
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Saigon, the capital of ...
in 1975. The
communist government
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...
renamed Saigon in honour of
Hồ Chí Minh
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Pri ...
shortly after the Fall of Saigon. Beginning in the 1990s, the city underwent rapid modernisation and expansion, contributing to Vietnam's post-war economic recovery.
It is known for its well-preserved
French colonial architecture
French colonial architecture includes several styles of architecture used by the French during colonization. Many former French colonies, especially those in Southeast Asia, have previously been reluctant to promote their colonial architecture ...
and vibrant street life. Its varied cultural institutions, which include
historic landmarks, walking streets, museums and galleries, attracts over 8 million international visitors each year.
Ho Chi Minh City is a major centre for finance, media, technology, education, and
transportation
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...
. The city generates nearly a quarter of the
country's total GDP, and is home to many multinational companies. It has a
Human Development Index
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, whi ...
of 0.795 (high), ranking
second
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...
among all municipalities and provinces of Vietnam.
Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport, the main airport serving the city, is the
busiest airport in the country by passenger traffic, accounting for nearly half of all international arrivals to Vietnam.
Etymology
Originally, There was a
Cham
Cham or CHAM may refer to:
Ethnicities and languages
*Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia
**Cham language, the language of the Cham people
***Cham script
*** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script
*Cham Albania ...
settlement had settled in the area and was called Baigaur.
["Saigon began as the Cham village of Baigaur, then became the Khmer Prey Nôkôr before being taken over by the Vietnamese and renamed Gia Dinh Thanh and then Saigon." ]
The Cambodians then took over the Cham village of Baigaur and renamed it Prey Nokor, a small fishing village.
Over time, under the control of the Vietnamese, it was officially renamed
Gia Định (), a name that was retained until the time of the
French conquest in the 1860s, when it adopted the name ,
westernized
Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, science, education, politics, econo ...
as ,
although the city was still indicated as on Vietnamese maps written in
chữ Hán until at least 1891.
The current name, Ho Chi Minh City, was given after
reunification
A political union is a type of political entity which is composed of, or created from, smaller polities, or the process which achieves this. These smaller polities are usually called federated states and federal territories in a federal governm ...
in 1976 to honour
Ho Chi Minh
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...
. Even today, however, the informal name of remains in daily speech. However, there is a technical difference between the two terms: is commonly used to refer to the city center in
District 1 District 1 may refer to:
* I District, Turku, in Finland
* District 1, Düsseldorf, a district in Düsseldorf, Germany
* Sector 1 (Bucharest), also known as District 1, in Bucharest, Romania
* District I, Budapest in Budapest, Hungary
* Distric ...
and the adjacent areas, while ''Ho Chi Minh City'' refers to all of its urban and rural districts.
Saigon
An etymology of ''Saigon'' (or in Vietnamese) is that is a
Sino-Vietnamese word (
chữ Hán: 柴;) meaning "firewood, lops, twigs; palisade", while is a word (
chữ Hán: 棍;
Sino-Vietnamese: Côn) meaning "stick, pole, bole", and whose meaning evolved into "cotton" in Vietnamese (, literally "cotton stick", i.e., "cotton plant", then shortened to ''gòn''). This name may refer to the many
kapok plants that the
Khmer people had planted around Prey Nokor, and which can still be seen at Cây Mai temple and surrounding areas.
It may also refer to the dense and tall forest that once existed around the city, a forest to which the Khmer name, Prey Nokor, already referred.
Other proposed etymologies draw parallels from tai4ngon6 (
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
: 堤岸), the
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...
name of
Chợ Lớn, which means "embankment" (French: ''quais''), and Vietnamese ''Sai Côn'', a translation of the Khmer ''Prey Nokor'' ( km, ព្រៃនគរ). ''
Prey
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...
'' means forest or jungle, and ''
nokor'' is a Khmer word of
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
origin meaning city or kingdom, and related to the English word 'Nation' – thus, "forest city" or "forest kingdom".
Ho Chi Minh City
The current official name, ', was first proclaimed in 1946, and later adopted in 1976. It is abbreviated as TP.HCM, and translated in English as ''Ho Chi Minh City'', abbreviated as HCMC, and in French as ' (the
circumflex
The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from la, circumflexus "bent around"a ...
is sometimes omitted), abbreviated as HCMV. The name commemorates
Ho Chi Minh
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...
, the first leader of
North Vietnam
North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...
. This name, though not his given name, was one he favored throughout his later years. It combines a common Vietnamese surname (, ) with a given name meaning "enlightened will" (from
Sino-Vietnamese,
志 明; meaning 'will' or 'spirit', and meaning 'light'), in essence, meaning "light bringer".
Nowadays, "Sài Gòn" is commonly used to refer to the city's central business districts, "Prey Nokor City" is well known in Khmer, whereas "Hồ Chí Minh City" is used to refer to the whole city.
History
Early settlement
The earliest settlement in the area was a
Funan
Funan (; km, ហ៊្វូណន, ; vi, Phù Nam, Chữ Hán: ) was the name given by Chinese cartographers, geographers and writers to an ancient Indianized state—or, rather a loose network of states ''(Mandala)''—located in mainla ...
temple at the location of the current Phụng Sơn Buddhist temple, founded in the 4th century AD.
A settlement called Baigaur was established on the site in the 11th century by the
Champa.
Baigaur was renamed Prey Nokor around 1145,
Prey Nokor grew on the site of a small fishing village and area of forest.
The first
Vietnamese people
The Vietnamese people ( vi, người Việt, lit=Viet people) or Kinh people ( vi, người Kinh) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to modern-day Northern Vietnam and Dongxing, Guangxi, Southern China (Jing Islands, Dongxing, Guangxi ...
crossed the sea to explore this land completely without the organisation of the
Nguyễn Lords. Thanks to the marriage between Princess
Nguyễn Phúc Ngọc Vạn
Nguyễn Phúc Ngọc Vạn (1605-1656), was queen consort of Cambodia.
She was the daughter of Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên and the chief queen of king Chey Chettha II
Chey Chettha II ( km, ជ័យជេដ្ឋាទី២ , 1576–1628) was ...
- daughter of Lord
Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên
Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên (阮福源; 16 August 1563 – 19 November 1635) was an early Nguyễn lord who ruled the southern Vietnam from the city of Phú Xuân (modern-day Huế) from 1613 to 1635. During his rule, the Nguyễn established a city ...
- and the King of Cambodia
Chey Chettha II
Chey Chettha II ( km, ជ័យជេដ្ឋាទី២ , 1576–1628) was a king of Cambodia who reigned from Oudong, about 40 km northwest of modern-day Phnom Penh, from 1618 to 1628. He was the son of King Srei Soriyopear (r. 1603–16 ...
in 1620, the relationship between Vietnam and Cambodia became smooth, and the people of the two countries could freely move back and forth. Vietnamese settlers began to migrate to the area of Saigon, Đồng Nai. Before that, the Funanese, Khmer, and Cham had lived there, scattered from time immemorial.
The period from 1623 to 1698 is considered the period of the formation of later Saigon. In 1623, Lord Nguyen sent a mission to ask his son-in-law, King Chey Chettha II, to set up tax collection stations in Prey Nokor (Sài Gònn) and Kas Krobei (Bến Nghé). Although this was a deserted jungle area, it was located on the traffic routes between Vietnam, Cambodia, and Siam. The next two important events of this period were the establishment of the barracks and residence of Vice King
Ang Non
Batom Reachea ( km, បទុមរាជា, born Ang Non ( km, អង្គនន់); 1616–1642) was King of Cambodia from 1640 to 1642.
Ang Non was the eldest son of the ''uprayorach'' ( ឧភយោរាជ, "Great Joint King") Outey. ...
and the establishment of a palace at Tân Mỹ (near the present-day Cống Quỳnh–Nguyễn Trãi crossroads). It can be said that Saigon was formed from these three government agencies.
Nguyễn Dynasty rule
In 1679, Lord
Nguyễn Phúc Tần
Nguyễn Phúc Tần (; 18 July 1620 – 30 April 1687) was one of the Nguyễn lords who ruled south Vietnam from the city of Phú Xuân (modern-day Huế) from 1648 to 1687. During his rule, the Trịnh–Nguyễn War came to an end. During his ...
allowed a group of Chinese refugees from the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
to settle in
Mỹ Tho
Mỹ Tho () is a city in the Tiền Giang province in the Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam. It has a population of approximately 169,000 in 2006 and 220,000 in 2012. It is the regional center of economics, education and technology. The majorit ...
,
Biên Hòa
Biên Hòa (Northern accent: , Southern accent: ) is the capital city of Đồng Nai Province, Vietnam and part of the Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area and located about east of Ho Chi Minh City, to which Biên Hòa is linked by Vietnam Hi ...
and Saigon to seek refuge.
In 1698,
Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh
Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh ( vi-hantu, 阮有鏡, 1650–1700), also known as Nguyễn Hữu Kính and his noble rank Lễ Thành Hầu, was a high-ranking general of Lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu. His military expeditions into the Mekong Delta placed the r ...
, a Vietnamese noble, was sent by the Nguyễn rulers of
Huế
Huế () is the capital of Thừa Thiên Huế province in central Vietnam and was the capital of Đàng Trong from 1738 to 1775 and of Vietnam during the Nguyễn dynasty from 1802 to 1945. The city served as the old Imperial City and admi ...
by sea to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in the area, thus detaching the area from Cambodia, which was not strong enough to intervene. He is often credited with the expansion of Saigon into a significant settlement. In 1788,
Nguyễn Ánh
Gia Long ( (''North''), ('' South''); 8 February 1762 – 3 February 1820), born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (阮福暎) or Nguyễn Ánh, was the founding emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last dynasty of Vietnam. His dynasty would rule the unif ...
captured the city, and used it as a centre of resistance against Tây Sơn. Two years later, a large
Vauban citadel called
Gia Định, or ''Thành Bát Quái'' ("Eight Diagrams") was built by Victor
Olivier de Puymanel
Victor Olivier de Puymanel (1768 in Carpentras - 1799 in Malacca), Nguyễn Văn Tín ( 阮 文 信) or Ông Tín in Vietnamese, was a French construction officer and a French Navy volunteer and adventurer who had an important role in Vietnam in ...
, one of the
Nguyễn Ánh's French mercenaries.
The citadel was captured by
Lê Văn Khôi
( vi-hantu, 黎文 ; died 1834) was the adopted son of the Vietnamese general Lê Văn Duyệt. He led the 1833–1835 Lê Văn Khôi revolt against Emperor Minh Mạng, but died in 1834.
As Duyệt was being prosecuted and his relatives condem ...
during
his revolt of 1833–35 against Emperor
Minh Mạng. Following the revolt, Minh Mạng ordered it to be dismantled, and a new citadel, called ''Phụng Thành'', was built in 1836.
In 1859, the citadel was destroyed by the French following the
Battle of Kỳ Hòa.
Initially called Gia Định, the Vietnamese city became Saigon in the 18th century.
French colonial era
Ceded to France by the 1862
Treaty of Saigon, the city was planned by the French to transform into a large town for colonisation. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, construction of various French-style buildings began, including a
botanical garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
, the
Norodom Palace
The Saigon Governor's Palace (french: Palais du Gouverneur, Saigon), also known as the Norodom Palace and then renamed Independence Palace, was a government building in Saigon, French Cochinchina, built between 1868 and 1873.
It contained the res ...
,
Hotel Continental,
Notre-Dame Cathedral
Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...
, and
Bến Thành Market
Bến Thành Market ( vi, Chợ Bến Thành) is located in the center of Hồ Chí Minh City, Vietnam in District 1. The market is one of the earliest surviving structures in Saigon and an important symbol of the city. Ben Thanh Market is a fam ...
, among many others. In April 1865,
Gia Định Báo was established in Saigon, becoming the first newspaper published in Vietnam. During the French colonial era, Saigon became known as "Pearl of the Orient" ('), or "Paris of the Extreme Orient".
On 27 April 1931, a new
région
France is divided into eighteen administrative regions (french: régions, singular ), of which thirteen are located in metropolitan France (in Europe), while the other five are overseas regions (not to be confused with the overseas collect ...
called Saigon–Cholon consisting of Saigon and Cholon was formed; the name Cholon was dropped after South Vietnam gained independence from France in 1955. From about 256,000 in 1930,
Saigon's population rose to 1.2 million in 1950.
File:French_capture_of_Saigon_in_1859.jpg, The Siege of Saigon
The siege of Saigon, a two-year siege of the city by the Vietnamese after its capture on February 17, 1859 by a Franco-Spanish flotilla under the command of the French admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly, was one of the major events of the Conq ...
in 1859 by Franco-Spanish forces
File:Casernes du 11e R.I.C. à Saigon.jpg, French soldiers
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...
stationed at a barrack in Saigon in 1930
File:Japanese troops entering Saigon in 1941.jpg, Imperial Japanese soldiers entering Saigon in 1941, during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
File:Ships and installations at Saigon afire after aerial attack by carrier based planes of US Pacific fleet, 12 January 1945.jpg, Saigon afire after aerial attacks from carrier-based planes of the US Pacific Fleet
The United States Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) is a theater-level component command of the United States Navy, located in the Pacific Ocean. It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor ...
in 1945
Republic of Vietnam era
In 1949, former Emperor
Bảo Đại
Bảo Đại (, vi-hantu, , lit. "keeper of greatness", 22 October 191331 July 1997), born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy (), was the 13th and final emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of Vietnam. From 1926 to 1945, he was em ...
made Saigon the capital of the
State of Vietnam with himself as head of state.
In 1954, the
Geneva Agreement partitioned Vietnam
along the
17th parallel (
Bến Hải River
The Bến Hải River ( vi, Sông Bến Hải) is a river in central Vietnam which became an important landmark in the partition of the country into a northern and a southern zone along the 17th parallel by the Geneva Accords of 1954 then end ...
), with the communist
Việt Minh
The Việt Minh (; abbreviated from , chữ Nôm and Hán tự: ; french: Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam, ) was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Fro ...
, under
Ho Chi Minh
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...
, gaining complete control of
the northern half of the country, while the southern half gaining independence from France.
The State officially became the
Republic of Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of t ...
when Bảo Đại was deposed by his Prime Minister
Ngô Đình Diệm in the 1955
referendum
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
,
with Saigon as its capital.
On 22 October 1956, the city was given the official name, ' ("Capital City Saigon").
After the decree of 27 March 1959 came into effect, Saigon was divided into eight districts and 41 wards.
In December 1966, two wards from old An Khánh Commune of Gia Định, were formed into District 1, then seceded shortly later to became District 9.
In July 1969, District 10 and District 11 were founded, and by 1975, the city's area consisted of eleven districts,
Gia Định,
Củ Chi District (
Hậu Nghĩa), and
Phú Hòa District (
Bình Dương).
Saigon served as the financial, industrial and transport centre of the Republic of Vietnam. In the late 1950s, with the U.S. providing nearly $2 billion in aid to the Diệm regime, the country's economy grew rapidly under
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
;
by 1960, over half of South Vietnam's factories were located in Saigon. However, beginning in the 1960s, Saigon experienced economic downturn and high inflation, as it was completely dependent on U.S. aid and imports from other countries.
As a result of widespread urbanisation, with the population reaching 3.3 million by 1970, the city was described by the
USAID
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...
as being turned "into a huge slum". The city also suffered from "prostitutes, drug addicts, corrupt officials, beggars, orphans, and Americans with money", and according to
Stanley Karnow
Stanley Abram Karnow (February 4, 1925 – January 27, 2013) was an American journalist and historian. He is best known for his writings on the Vietnam War.
Education and career
After serving with the United States Army Air Forces in the China B ...
, it was "a black-market city in the largest sense of the word".
On 28 April 1955, the
Vietnamese National Army
The Vietnamese National Army or Vietnam National Army ( vi, Quân đội Quốc gia Việt Nam, lit=Army of the State of Vietnam, french: Armée Nationale Vietnamienne, lit=Vietnamese National Army) was the State of Vietnam's military force create ...
launched
an attack against
Bình Xuyên military force in the city. The battle lasted until May, killing an estimated 500 people and leaving about 20,000 homeless.
Ngô Đình Diệm then later turned on other paramilitary groups in Saigon, including the
Hòa Hảo
Hòa Hảo is a religious movement described either as a syncretistic folk religion or as a sect of Buddhism. It was founded in 1939 by Huỳnh Phú Sổ (1920–1947), who is regarded as a saint by its devotees. It is one of the major religio ...
Buddhist reform movement.
On 11 June 1963, Buddhist monk
Thích Quảng Đức
Thích Quảng Đức (; vi-hantu, , 1897 – 11 June 1963; born Lâm Văn Túc) was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road intersection on 11 June 1963. Quảng Đức was protesting the pers ...
burned himself in the city, in protest of the Diệm regime. On 1 November of the same year, Diệm was
assassinated in Saigon, in a successful coup by
Dương Văn Minh
Dương Văn Minh (; 16 February 19166 August 2001), popularly known as Big Minh, was a South Vietnamese politician and a senior general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and a politician during the presidency of Ngô Đình Diệm ...
.
During the 1968
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. It was launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) against the force ...
, communist forces launched a failed
attempt to capture the city. On 30 April 1975,
Saigon was captured, ending the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
with a victory for North Vietnam, and the city came under the control of the
Vietnamese People's Army.
File:StanVacBuilding1955.jpg, The headquarters of StanVac (now part of Exxon) is an example of Vietnamese modernist architecture which boomed during the era
File:Saigon Opera House, 1967.jpg, The Saigon Opera House
The Municipal Theatre of Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon Municipal Opera House ( vi, Nhà hát Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh), is an opera house in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It is an example of French Colonial architecture in Vietnam.
Buil ...
as seen from Tự Do (Liberty) Street in 1967
File:Saigon_street_scene.jpg, Street view of Saigon in 1968
File:US Embassy, Saigon, January 1968 (Colorized).jpg, The US Embassy in Saigon after an attack during the Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. It was launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) against the force ...
in 1968
Post–Vietnam War and today
In 1976, upon the establishment of the unified communist Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the city of Saigon (including the Cholon area), the province of Gia Ðịnh and two suburban districts of two other nearby provinces were combined to create Ho Chi Minh City, in honour of the late Communist leader Ho Chi Minh. At the time, the city covered an area of with eight districts and five rurals:
Thủ Đức
Thủ Đức is a municipal city (sub-city) under the administration of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The city was founded by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on December 9, 2020 from the districts of 2, 9, and Thủ Đức Dist ...
,
Hóc Môn
Hóc Môn is a township () and capital of Hóc Môn District, Ho Chi Minh City
, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name = GRP (Nominal)
, b ...
,
Củ Chi
Củ Chi is a township
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to t ...
,
Bình Chánh, and
Nhà Bè.
Since 1978, administrative divisions in the city have been revised numerous times,
most recently in 2020, when
District 2 District 2 may refer to:
Places by country
*II District, Turku, in Finland
* District 2, Düsseldorf, Germany
*District 2, Grand Bassa County, a district in Liberia
*District 2, an electoral district of Malta
*District 2, a police district of Mal ...
,
District 9
''District 9'' is a 2009 science fiction mockumentary film directed by Neill Blomkamp in his feature film debut, written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. It is a co-production of New Zea ...
, and
Thủ Đức District were consolidated to form a
municipal city.
Today, Ho Chi Minh City, along with its surrounding provinces, is described as "the manufacturing hub" of Vietnam, and "an attractive business hub". In terms of cost, it was ranked the 111th-most expensive major city in the world according to a 2020 survey of 209 cities. In terms of international connectedness, as of 2020, the city was classified as a "Beta" city by the
Globalization and World Cities Research Network
The Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) is a think tank that studies the relationships between world cities in the context of globalization. It is based in the geography department of Loughborough University in Leicestershire ...
.
Geography
Ho Chi Minh City is located in the south-eastern region of Vietnam, south of
Hanoi
Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
. The average elevation is above sea level for the city centre and for the suburb areas. It borders
Tây Ninh Province and
Bình Dương Province to the north,
Đồng Nai Province and
Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province
Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu ) is a province of Vietnam. It is located on the coast of the country's Southeast region. It also includes the Côn Đảo islands, located some distance off Vietnam's southeastern coast. From 1954 to 1975, under South ...
to the east,
Long An Province to the west,
Tiền Giang Province
The term ''tiền'' ( Hán tự: 錢) is used to refer to various currency-related concepts used in Vietnamese history. The name is a cognate with the Chinese ''qián'' (錢), a unit of weight called " mace" in English. It can refer to a unit ...
and
East Sea to the south with a coast long. The city covers an area of 2,095 km
2 (809 sq mi or 0.63% of the surface of Vietnam), extending up to
Củ Chi District ( from the Cambodian border) and down to
Cần Giờ on the Eastern Sea. The distance from the northernmost point (Phú Mỹ Hưng Commune,
Củ Chi District) to the southernmost one (Long Hòa Commune, Cần Giờ District) is , and from the easternmost point (
Long Bình ward, District Nine) to the westernmost one (Bình Chánh Commune, Bình Chánh District) is . Due to its location on the Mekong Delta, the city is fringed by tidal flats that have been heavily modified for agriculture.
Climate
The city has a
tropical climate
Tropical climate is the first of the five major climate groups in the Köppen climate classification identified with the letter A. Tropical climates are defined by a monthly average temperature of 18 °C (64.4 °F) or higher in the cool ...
, specifically
tropical savanna
Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is dominated by grass and/or shrubs located in semi-arid to semi-humid climate regions of subtropical and t ...
(
Aw), with a high average humidity of 78–82%.
The year is divided into two distinct seasons.
The rainy season, with an average rainfall of about annually (about 150 rainy days per year), usually lasts from May to November.
The dry season lasts from December to April.
The average temperature is , with little variation throughout the year.
The highest temperature recorded was in April while the lowest temperature recorded was in January.
On average, the city experiences between 2,400 and 2,700 hours of sunshine per year.
Flooding
Ho Chi Minh City is considered one of the cities most vulnerable to the effects of
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
, particularly flooding. During the rainy season, a combination of high tide, heavy rains, high flow volume in the
Saigon River
The Saigon River ( vi, Sông Sài Gòn) is a river located in southern Vietnam that rises near Phum Daung in southeastern Cambodia, flows south and south-southeast for about and empties into the Soài Rạp, which in its turn empties into the ...
and
Đồng Nai River and land subsidence results in regular flooding in several parts of the city. A once-in-100 year flood would cause 23% of the city to suffer flooding.
Administration
Ho Chi Minh City is a municipality at the same level as
Vietnam's provinces, which is subdivided into 22 district-level sub-divisions (as of 2020):
*5 rural districts ( in area), which are designated as rural ('):
**
Củ Chi
Củ Chi is a township
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to t ...
**
Hóc Môn
Hóc Môn is a township () and capital of Hóc Môn District, Ho Chi Minh City
, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name = GRP (Nominal)
, b ...
**
Bình Chánh
**
Nhà Bè
**
Cần Giờ
*16 urban districts ( in area), which are designated urban or suburban ('):
**
District 1 District 1 may refer to:
* I District, Turku, in Finland
* District 1, Düsseldorf, a district in Düsseldorf, Germany
* Sector 1 (Bucharest), also known as District 1, in Bucharest, Romania
* District I, Budapest in Budapest, Hungary
* Distric ...
**
District 3 District 3 can refer to:
*III District, Turku, in Finland
* District 3, Düsseldorf, in Germany
*District 3, Grand Bassa County, in Liberia
* District 3, Malta, an electoral district of Malta
*District 3, a police district of Malta
* Wiedikon, als ...
**
District 4 District 4 can refer to:
* District 4, Düsseldorf, in Germany
* District 4, Grand Bassa County, in Liberia
* District 4 (Ho Chi Minh City), in Vietnam
* District 4 (New York City Council), in the United States
*IV District, Turku
The IV Distr ...
**
District 5 District 5, 5 District or 5th District may refer to:
Europe
* District 5 (Zürich)
* District 5, Düsseldorf
* V District, Turku
* District 5, an electoral district of Malta
* District 5, a police district of Malta
* Palma-Palmilla, also known ...
**
District 6 District Six is a place in Cape Town, South Africa.
District Six may also refer to:
:Government divisions
* District 6, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
* District 6 (New York City Council), in the United States
* VI District, Turku, in Finland
* Distri ...
**
District 7 District 7 could refer to:
* District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
* District 7 (Zürich), Switzerland
*District 7, Düsseldorf, Germany
*VII District, Turku, Finland
*District 7 School (Groton, Massachusetts), United States
*District 7 School (Han ...
**
District 8 District 8 can refer to:
*District 8 Jakarta, in Indonesia
*District 8 (Ho Chi Minh City), in Vietnam
* VIII District, Turku, in Finland
* VIII District, Budapest, in Hungary
*Riesbach, also known as District 8, in Zürich, Switzerland
* District ...
**
District 10 District 10 may refer to:
Places
* District 10 (Ho Chi Minh city), Vietnam
* District 10 (Zürich), in Switzerland
* District 10, an electoral district of Malta
* District 10, a police district of Malta
* District 10 School, a historic school in ...
**
District 11 District 11 can refer to:
*District 11 (Ho Chi Minh city), Vietnam
*District 11 (Zürich), Switzerland
* District 11, an electoral district of Malta
* Colorado Springs School District 11, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States
*District 11 ( ...
**
District 12 District 12 may refer to:
*District 12 (Ho Chi Minh city), Vietnam
* Schwamendingen, Zürich, Switzerland, also known as District 12
* District 12, an electoral district of Malta
*District 12 (Hunger Games), fictional district in the Hunger Games ...
**
Gò Vấp
**
Tân Bình
**
Tân Phú
**
Bình Thạnh
**
Phú Nhuận
**
Bình Tân
*1 sub-city ( in area), which is designated
municipal city ('):
**
Thủ Đức
Thủ Đức is a municipal city (sub-city) under the administration of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The city was founded by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on December 9, 2020 from the districts of 2, 9, and Thủ Đức Dist ...
They are further subdivided into 5 commune-level towns (or townlets), 58 communes, and 249 wards (, see List of HCMC administrative units below).
On 1 January 2021, it was announced that
District 2 District 2 may refer to:
Places by country
*II District, Turku, in Finland
* District 2, Düsseldorf, Germany
*District 2, Grand Bassa County, a district in Liberia
*District 2, an electoral district of Malta
*District 2, a police district of Mal ...
,
District 9
''District 9'' is a 2009 science fiction mockumentary film directed by Neill Blomkamp in his feature film debut, written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. It is a co-production of New Zea ...
and
Thủ Đức District would be consolidated and was approved by
Standing Committee of the National Assembly
The Standing Committee of the National Assembly, formerly known as the Council of State, is the highest standing body of the National Assembly of Vietnam. Its members are elected from among National Assembly deputies, including the Chairman/Chairw ...
.
City government
The
Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee
, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name = GRP (Nominal)
, blank_info = 2019
, blank1_name = – Total
, blank1_ ...
is a 13-member executive branch of the city. The current chairman is
Nguyễn Thành Phong. There are several vice chairmen and chairwomen on the committee with responsibility over various city departments.
The legislative branch of the city is the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council and consists of 105 members. The current Chairwoman is
Nguyễn Thị Lệ.
The judiciary branch of the city is the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court. The current Chief Judge is
Lê Thanh Phong.
The executive committee of Communist Party of Ho Chi Minh City is the leading organ of the Communist Party in Ho Chi Minh City. The current secretary is
Nguyễn Văn Nên
Nguyễn () is the most common Vietnamese surname. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as Nguyen. Nguyên (元)is a different word and surname.
By some estimates 39 percent of Vietnamese people bear this s ...
. The permanent deputy secretary of the Communist Party is ranked second in the city politics after the Secretary of the Communist Party, while chairman of the People's Committee is ranked third and the chairman of the People's Council is ranked fourth.
Demographics
The population of Ho Chi Minh City, as of the 1 October 2004 census, was 6,117,251 (of which 19 inner districts had 5,140,412 residents and 5 suburban districts had 976,839 inhabitants).
In mid-2007, the city's population was 6,650,942 – with the 19 inner districts home to 5,564,975 residents and the five suburban districts containing 1,085,967 inhabitants. The result of the 2009 Census shows that the city's population was 7,162,864 people,
about 8.34% of the total population of Vietnam, making it the highest population-concentrated city in the country. As of the end of 2012, the total population of the city was 7,750,900 people, an increase of 3.1% from 2011.
As an administrative unit, its population is also the largest at the provincial level. According to the 2019 census, Ho Chi Minh City has a population of over 8.9 million within the
city proper
A city proper is the geographical area contained within city limits. The term ''proper'' is not exclusive to cities; it can describe the geographical area within the boundaries of any given locality. The United Nations defines the term as "the sin ...
and over 21 million within its
metropolitan area
A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...
.
The city's population is expected to grow to 13.9 million by 2025. The population of the city is expanding faster than earlier predictions. In August 2017, the city's mayor, Nguyễn Thành Phong, admitted that previous estimates of 8–10 million were drastic underestimations.
The actual population (including those who have not officially registered) was estimated 13 million in 2017.
The
Ho Chi Minh City Metropolitan Area
Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area ( vi, Vùng đô thị Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh) is a metropolitan area that was in June 2008 proposed by the Ministry of Construction of Vietnam to the Government of Vietnam for approval. According to this ma ...
, a metropolitan area covering most parts of the
southeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
region plus
Tiền Giang Province
The term ''tiền'' ( Hán tự: 錢) is used to refer to various currency-related concepts used in Vietnamese history. The name is a cognate with the Chinese ''qián'' (錢), a unit of weight called " mace" in English. It can refer to a unit ...
and
Long An Province under planning, will have an area of with a population of 20 million inhabitants by 2020. Inhabitants of Ho Chi Minh City are usually known as "Saigonese" in English and "dân Sài Gòn" in Vietnamese.
Ethnic groups
The majority of the population are ethnic Vietnamese (
Kinh
The Vietnamese people ( vi, người Việt, lit=Viet people) or Kinh people ( vi, người Kinh) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to modern-day Northern Vietnam and Southern China (Jing Islands, Dongxing, Guangxi). The native lang ...
) at about 93.52%. Ho Chi Minh City's largest minority ethnic group are the Chinese (
Hoa) with 5.78%.
Cholon – in District 5 and parts of Districts 6, 10, and 11 – is home to the largest Chinese community in Vietnam. The
Hoa (Chinese) speak a number of
varieties of Chinese
Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of ma ...
, including
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...
,
Teochew (Chaozhou),
Hokkien
The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...
,
Hainanese, and
Hakka
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...
; smaller numbers also speak
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...
. Other ethnic minorities include
Khmer with 0.34%, and
Cham
Cham or CHAM may refer to:
Ethnicities and languages
*Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia
**Cham language, the language of the Cham people
***Cham script
*** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script
*Cham Albania ...
with 0.1%.
Various other nationalities including Koreans, Japanese, Americans, South Africans, Filipinos and Britons reside in Ho Chi Minh City, particularly in Thủ Đức and District 7 as expatriate workers.
Religion
As of 1 April 2019, the city recognises 13 religions and there are 1,738,411 residents identify as religious people.
Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and Buddhism are the two predominant religions in Saigon. The largest is Catholicism as it is estimated to have 845,720 adherents, representing about 10% of residents, followed by Buddhism with 770,220 followers. There are 56,762 residents are member of
Caodaism
Caodaism ( vi, Đạo Cao Đài, Chữ Hán: ) is a monotheistic syncretic new religious movement officially established in the city of Tây Ninh in southern Vietnam in 1926. The full name of the religion is (The Great Faith or theThird Uni ...
, 45,678 are
Protestants, 9,220 are
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
, 7,220 are (
Hoa Hao Buddhists) and 2,267 are Vietnamese Pure Land Buddhists. Other minor religions include Hinduism, Tứ Ân Hiếu Nghĩa, Minh Sư Đạo,
Bahá'í, Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương and Minh Lý Đạo, representing less than 0.01% of city's population.
Economy
Ho Chi Minh City is the economic center of Vietnam and accounts for a large proportion of the
economy of Vietnam
The economy of Vietnam is a mixed socialist-oriented market economy, which is the 38th-largest in the world as measured by nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and 26th-largest in the world as measured by purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2022. ...
. Although the city takes up just 0.6% of the country's land area, it contains 8.34% of the population of Vietnam, 20.2% of its GDP, 27.9% of industrial output and 34.9% of the
FDI projects in the country in 2005. In 2005, the city had 4,344,000 labourers, of whom 130,000 are over the labour age norm (in Vietnam, 60 for male and 55 for female workers). In 2009,
GDP per capita reached $2,800, compared to the country's average level of $1,042.
Sectors
The economy of Ho Chi Minh City consists of industries ranging from mining, seafood processing, agriculture, and construction, to tourism, finance, industry and trade. The state-owned sector makes up 33.3% of the economy, the private sector 4.6%, and the remainder in foreign investment. Concerning its economic structure, the service sector accounts for 51.1%, industry and construction account for 47.7% and forestry, agriculture and others make up just 1.2%.
The city and its ports are part of the
21st Century Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast via the
Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, there to the Upper Adriatic region of
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...
with its rail connections to
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
and
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...
.
Quang Trung Software Park is a software park situated in District 12. The park is approximately from downtown Ho Chi Minh City and hosts software enterprises as well as dot.com companies. The park also includes a software training school. Dot.com investors here are supplied with other facilities and services such as residences and high-speed access to the internet as well as favorable taxation. Together with the
Hi-Tech Park
High technology (high tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the most complex or the newest te ...
in
Thủ Đức
Thủ Đức is a municipal city (sub-city) under the administration of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The city was founded by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on December 9, 2020 from the districts of 2, 9, and Thủ Đức Dist ...
, and the 32 ha. software park inside Tân Thuận Export Processing Zone in District 7 of the city, Ho Chi Minh City aims to become an important hi-tech city in the country and the South-East Asia region.
This park helps the city in particular and Vietnam in general to become an outsourcing location for other enterprises in developed countries, as India has done. Some 300,000 businesses, including many large enterprises, are involved in high-tech, electronic, processing and light industries, and also in construction, building materials and agricultural products. Additionally, crude oil is a popular economic base in the city. Investors are still pouring money into the city. Total local private investment was 160 billion
''đồng'' (US$7.5 million) with 18,500 newly founded companies. Investment trends to high technology, services and real estate projects.
As of June 2006, the city had three export processing zones and twelve industrial parks, in addition to Quang Trung Software Park and Ho Chi Minh City hi-tech park.
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
has invested about 1 billion dollars in a factory in the city. More than fifty banks with hundreds of branches and about 20 insurance companies are also located inside the city. The
Stock Exchange, the first stock exchange in Vietnam, was opened in 2001. There are 171 medium and large-scale markets as well as several supermarket chains, shopping malls, and fashion and beauty centers.
Urbanisation
With a population now of 8,382,287 (as of Census 2010 on 1 April 2010) (registered residents plus migrant workers as well as a metropolitan population of 10 million), Ho Chi Minh City needs increased public infrastructure.
To this end, the city and central governments have embarked on an effort to develop new urban centres. The two most prominent projects are the Thủ Thiêm city centre in District 2 and the Phú Mỹ Hưng Urban Area, a new city centre in District 7 (as part of the Saigon South project) where various international schools such as
Saigon South International School and Australian
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia.
Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, scienc ...
are located. In December 2007, Phú Mỹ Hưng's new City Centre completed the 10–14 lane wide Nguyễn Văn Linh Boulevard linking the Saigon port areas, Tân Thuận Export Processing Zone to the National Highway 1 and the
Mekong Delta area. In November 2008, a brand new trade centre, Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre, also opened its doors. Other projects include Grandview, Waterfront, Sky Garden, Riverside and Phú Gia 99. Phú Mỹ Hưng's new City Centre received the first Model New City Award from the Vietnamese Ministry of Construction.
Shopping
Some of the larger shopping malls and plazas opened recently include:
*Maximark – Multiple locations (District 10, Tân Bình District)
*Satramart – 460 3/2 Street, Ward 12, District 10
*
Auchan (2016) – Multiple locations (District 10, Gò Vấp District)
*
Lotte Mart
Lotte Mart is a South Korean hypermarket that sells a variety of groceries, clothing, toys, electronics, and other goods, with headquarters in South Korea. Lotte Mart is a division of the Lotte Co., Ltd. which sells food and shopping services ...
– Multiple locations (District 7, District 11, Tân Bình District)
*
AEON
The word aeon , also spelled eon (in American and Australian English), originally meant "life", "vital force" or "being", "generation" or "a period of time", though it tended to be translated as "age" in the sense of "ages", "forever", "timele ...
Mall – Multiple locations (Bình Tân District, Tân Phú District)
*SC VivoCity (2015) – 1058 Nguyễn Văn Linh Boulevard, Tân Phong Ward, District 7
*Zen Plaza (1995) – 54–56 Nguyễn Trãi St, District 1
*
Saigon Centre
Saigon Centre is a mixed-use complex in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, invested by Keppel Land Watco I. The complex is located on Le Loi Boulevard in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.
History
Phase 1 of the complex was completed in 1996. The phase con ...
(1997) – 65 Lê Lợi Blvd, District 1
*
Diamond Plaza (1999) – 34 Lê Duẩn Blvd, District 1
*
Big C
Big C ( th, บิ๊กซี ซูเปอร์เซ็นเตอร์), is a grocery and general merchandising retailer headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. Big C is as of 2016 Thailand's second-largest hypermarket operator after Lotus' ...
(2002) – Multiple locations (District 10, Bình Tân District, Gò Vấp District, Phú Nhuận District, Tân Phú District)
*
METRO Cash & Carry/Mega Market – Multiple locations (District 2, District 6, District 12)
*
Crescent Mall
Crescent Mall is a shopping mall in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, located at Phú Mỹ Hưng planned city in District 7. The mall has an area of that consists of 200 stores, a supermarket, cinema, restaurants, cafes, and gaming stadium. The ma ...
– Phú Mỹ Hưng Urban Area, District 7
*
Parkson
Parkson Holdings Berhad (doing business as Parkson; ; ) is an Asian-based department store operator with an extensive network of 131 stores as of 2017, spanning approximately 2.1 million m2 of retail space across cities in Malaysia, China, Vietnam ...
(2005–2009) – Multiple locations (District 1, District 2, District 5, District 7, District 11, Tân Bình District)
*
Saigon Paragon
The Saigon Paragon is a shopping centre and office building in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It is located at 3 Nguyen Luong Bang Street, Tan Phu Ward, District 7 District 7 could refer to:
* District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
* District 7 (Zür ...
(2009) – 3 Nguyễn Lương Bằng St, Tân Phú Ward, District 7
*
NowZone (2009) – 235 Nguyễn Văn Cừ Ave, District 1
*
Kumho Asiana Plaza (2010) – 39 Lê Duẩn Blvd, Bến Nghé Ward, District 1
*
Vincom Centre (2010) – 70–72 Lê Thánh Tôn St, District 1
*
Union Square
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
– 171 Lê Thánh Tôn st, District 1
*
Vincom Mega Mall (2016) – 161 Hà Nội Highway, Thảo Điền Ward, District 2 (City of Thủ Đức)
*
Bitexco Financial Tower
Bitexco Financial Tower ( vi, Tháp Tài chính Bitexco) is a skyscraper in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. At its completion in 2010, it became the tallest building in Vietnam and kept this status until January 2011, when it was surpassed by Keangna ...
(2010) Alley 2 Hàm Nghi Blvd, District 1
*
Co.opmart – Multiple locations (District 1, District 3, District 5, District 6, District 7, District 8, District 10, District 11, District 12, Bình Chánh District, Bình Tân District, Bình Thạnh District, Củ Chi District, Gò Vấp District, Hóc Môn District, Phú Nhuận District, Tân Phú District, Thủ Đức District)
*
Landmark 81
Landmark 81 is a supertall skyscraper in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The investor and primary developer for the project is Vinhomes, a Vietnamese corporation that is also the country's largest real-estate company. Landmark 81 is the tallest buil ...
(2018) – 208 Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh St, Bình Thạnh District
*WinMart – Multiple locations (District 1, District 2, District 7, District 9, District 10, Bình Chánh District, Bình Thạnh District, Gò Vấp District, Tân Bình District, Thủ Đức District)
In 2007, three million foreign tourists, about 70% of the total number of tourists to Vietnam, visited the city. Total cargo transport to Ho Chi Minh City's ports reached 50.5 million
tonne
The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...
s, nearly one-third of the total for Vietnam.
Tourism
Tourist attractions in Ho Chi Minh City are mainly related to periods of French colonisation and the Vietnam War. The city's centre has some wide American-style boulevards and a few
French colonial
French colonial architecture includes several styles of architecture used by the French during colonization. Many former French colonies, especially those in Southeast Asia, have previously been reluctant to promote their colonial architectur ...
buildings. The majority of these tourist spots are located in District 1 and are a short distance from each other. The most prominent structures in the city centre are the
Reunification Palace
The Independence Palace ( vi, Dinh Độc Lập), also publicly known as the Reunification Convention Hall ( vi, Hội trường Thống Nhất), is a landmark in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon), Vietnam. It was designed by architec ...
('), City Hall ('),
Municipal Theatre A municipal theatre is a theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific ...
(', also known as the Opera House), City Post Office ('), State Bank Office ('), City People's Court ('), and
Notre-Dame Cathedral
Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...
('), which was constructed between 1863 and 1880. Some of the historic hotels include the
Hotel Majestic, dating from the French colonial era, and the
Rex and Caravelle hotels, both of which are former hangouts for American officers and war correspondents in the 1960s & '70s.
The city has various museums including the
Ho Chi Minh City Museum
Gia Long Palace ( vi, Dinh Gia Long, french: palais de Gia Long), now officially the Ho Chi Minh City Museum (Vietnamese language: ''Bảo tàng Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh'') is a historical site and museum in Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, Vietnam. T ...
,
Museum of Vietnamese History
The Ho Chi Minh City Museum of History is located at 2 Nguyen Binh Khiem Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Formerly known as the Musée Blanchard de la Brosse, built by Auguste Delaval in 1926, and The National Muse ...
, the Revolutionary Museum, the Museum of south-eastern Armed Forces, the
War Remnants Museum
The War Remnants Museum ( vi, Bảo tàng chứng tích chiến tranh) is a war museum at 28 Vo Van Tan, in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. It contains exhibits relating to the First Indochina War and the Vietnam War.
History
Op ...
, the Museum of Southern Women, the
Museum of Fine Arts, the Nhà Rồng Memorial House, and the Bến Dược Relic of Underground Tunnels. The
Củ Chi tunnels
The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting tunnels located in the Củ Chi District of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunne ...
are north-west of the city in
Củ Chi District. The
Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens
The Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens (French: ''Jardin botanique et zoologique de Saïgon'', Vietnamese: ''Thảo Cầm Viên Sài Gòn'') is Vietnam's largest zoo and botanical garden. The Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens was commissioned by Adm ...
, in
District 1 District 1 may refer to:
* I District, Turku, in Finland
* District 1, Düsseldorf, a district in Düsseldorf, Germany
* Sector 1 (Bucharest), also known as District 1, in Bucharest, Romania
* District I, Budapest in Budapest, Hungary
* Distric ...
, dates from 1865. The Đầm Sen Tourist and Cultural Park,
Suối Tiên Amusement and Culture Park, and Cần Giờ's Eco beach resort are three recreational sites inside the city which are popular with tourists. Aside from the Municipal Theatre, there are other places of entertainment such as the Bến Thành Theatre, Hòa Bình Theatre, and the Lan Anh Music Stage. Ho Chi Minh City is home to hundreds of cinemas and theatres, with cinema and drama theatre revenue accounting for 60–70% of Vietnam's total revenue in this industry. Unlike other theatrical organisations found in Vietnam's provinces and municipalities, residents of Ho Chi Minh City keep their theatres active without the support of subsidies from the Vietnamese government. The city is also home to most of the private film companies in Vietnam.
Like many of Vietnam's smaller cities, the city boasts a multitude of restaurants serving typical Vietnamese dishes such as
phở
Phở or pho (, , ; ) is a Vietnamese soup dish consisting of broth, rice noodles (), herbs, and meat (usually beef (), sometimes chicken ()). Phở is a popular food in Vietnam where it is served in households, street stalls and restaurants ...
or
rice vermicelli
Rice vermicelli is a thin form of noodle. It is sometimes referred to as 'rice noodles' or 'rice sticks', but should not be confused with cellophane noodles, a different Asian type of vermicelli made from mung bean starch or rice starch rathe ...
. Backpacking travellers most often frequent the "Backpackers’ Quarter" on
Phạm Ngũ Lão Street and
Bùi Viện Street
Bùi ( Chữ Hán: 裴) is a common Vietnamese surname, ranked 9th among the most common surnames in Vietnam. The surname Pei (裴) in Chinese and Bae (배) in Korean share the same origin with it.
Bui is also an Italian surname.
Bùi may refer ...
, District 1.
It was approximated that 4.3 million tourists visited Vietnam in 2007, of which 70 percent, approximately 3 million tourists, visited Ho Chi Minh City.
According to the most recent international tourist statistic, Ho Chi Minh City welcomed 6 million tourists in 2017.
According to
Mastercard's 2019 report, Ho Chi Minh City is also the country's second most visited city (18th in Asia Pacific), with 4.1 million overnight international visitors in 2018 (after Hanoi with 4.8 million visitors).
Transport
Air
The city is served by
Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport, the largest airport in Vietnam in terms of passengers handled (with an estimated number of over 15.5 million passengers per year in 2010, accounting for more than half of Vietnam's air passenger traffic
[Two more Hanoi<>Saigon flights per day for Pacific Airlines on Vietnamnet.net, accessdate 11 November 2007,]
).
Long Thanh International Airport, Long Thành International Airport is scheduled to begin operating in 2025. Based in
Long Thành District
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great time, duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music ...
,
Đồng Nai Province, about east of Ho Chi Minh City, Long Thành Airport will serve international flights, with a maximum traffic capacity of 100 million passengers per year when fully completed; Tân Sơn Nhất Airport will serve domestic flights.
Rail
Ho Chi Minh City is also a terminal for many
Vietnam Railways
Vietnam Railways (VNR, ) is the state-owned operator of the railway system in Vietnam. The principal route is the single-track North–South Railway line, running between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. This was built at the metre gau ...
train routes in the country. The
Reunification Express (tàu Thống Nhất) runs from Saigon to Hanoi from
Saigon Railway Station
Saigon station is a railway station in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The station is a major hub in the national railway network. Located about 1 km from the city center, Saigon railway station is the final station on the North–South ...
in
District 3 District 3 can refer to:
*III District, Turku, in Finland
* District 3, Düsseldorf, in Germany
*District 3, Grand Bassa County, in Liberia
* District 3, Malta, an electoral district of Malta
*District 3, a police district of Malta
* Wiedikon, als ...
, with stops at cities and provinces along the line. Within the city, the two main stations are Sóng Thần and Sài Gòn. In addition, there are several smaller stations such as Dĩ An, Thủ Đức, Bình Triệu, Gò Vấp. However, rail transport is not fully developed and presently comprises only 0.6% of passenger traffic and 6% of goods shipments.
Water transport
The city's location on the
Saigon River
The Saigon River ( vi, Sông Sài Gòn) is a river located in southern Vietnam that rises near Phum Daung in southeastern Cambodia, flows south and south-southeast for about and empties into the Soài Rạp, which in its turn empties into the ...
makes it a bustling commercial and passenger port; besides a constant stream of cargo ships, passenger boats operate regularly between Ho Chi Minh City and various destinations in Southern Vietnam and Cambodia, including
Vũng Tàu
Vũng Tàu (''Hanoi accent:'' , ''Saigon accent:'' ) is the largest city of Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province in southern Vietnam. The city area is , consists of 13 urban wards and one commune of Long Sơn Islet. Vũng Tàu was the capital of the p ...
,
Cần Thơ
Cần Thơ, also written as Can Tho or Cantho (: , : ), is the fourth-largest city in Vietnam, and the largest city along the Mekong Delta region in Vietnam.
It is noted for its floating markets, rice paper-making village, and picturesque r ...
and the
Mekong Delta, and
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...
. Traffic between Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam's southern provinces has steadily increased over the years; the Đôi and Tẻ Canals, the main routes to the Mekong Delta, receive 100,000 waterway vehicles every year, representing around 13 million tons of cargo. A project to dredge these routes has been approved to facilitate transport, to be implemented in 2011–14.
In 2017, the
Saigon Waterbus launched, connecting
District 1 District 1 may refer to:
* I District, Turku, in Finland
* District 1, Düsseldorf, a district in Düsseldorf, Germany
* Sector 1 (Bucharest), also known as District 1, in Bucharest, Romania
* District I, Budapest in Budapest, Hungary
* Distric ...
to
Thu Duc City
Thu and variations may refer to:
* Thursday
* Thu (surname), the Gan romanization of the Chinese surname Su
* Thu (pronoun) or Þu, an Old English pronoun
* Thû, an early name for Sauron in J.R.R. Tolkien's works
* Thu, Palpa, a village developm ...
.
Public transport
Metro
The
Ho Chi Minh City Metro
The Ho Chi Minh City Metro (HCMC Metro, vi, Đường sắt đô thị Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, lit=Urban railway of the City of Ho Chi Minh) is a planned rapid transit network that will serve Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
Its first metro li ...
, a
rapid transit
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...
network, is being built in stages. The first line is under construction, and expected to be fully operational by 2024. This Line 1, Ho Chi Minh City Metro, first line will connect Ben Thanh metro station, Bến Thành to Suoi Tien Amusement Park, Suối Tiên Park in
District 9
''District 9'' is a 2009 science fiction mockumentary film directed by Neill Blomkamp in his feature film debut, written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. It is a co-production of New Zea ...
, with a depot in Long Bình. Planners expect the route to serve more than 160,000 passengers daily.
A line between Bến Thành and Tham Lương in
District 12 District 12 may refer to:
*District 12 (Ho Chi Minh city), Vietnam
* Schwamendingen, Zürich, Switzerland, also known as District 12
* District 12, an electoral district of Malta
*District 12 (Hunger Games), fictional district in the Hunger Games ...
has been approved by the government,
and several more lines are the subject of ongoing feasibility studies.
Bus
Public buses run on many routes and tickets can be purchased on the bus. Ho Chi Minh City has a number of coach houses, which house coach buses to and from other areas in Vietnam. The largest coach station – in terms of passengers handled – is the Mien Dong Coach Station, Miền Đông Coach Station in the Bình Thạnh District.
Private transport
The main means of transport within the city are motorbikes, cars, buses, taxis, and bicycles. Motorbikes remain the most common way to move around the city. Taxis are plentiful and usually have metres, although it is also common to agree on a price before taking a long trip, for example, from the airport to the city centre. For short trips, "" (literally, "hug vehicle") motorcycle taxis are available throughout the city, usually congregating at a major intersection. You can also book motorcycle and car taxis through ride-hailing apps like Grab (company), Grab and GoJek. A popular activity for tourists is a tour of the city on Cycle rickshaw, cyclos, which allow for longer trips at a more relaxed pace. For the last few years, cars have become more popular. There are approximately 340,000 cars and 3.5 million motorcycles in the city, which is almost double compared with Hanoi.
The growing number of cars tend to cause gridlock and contribute to air pollution. The government has called out motorcycles as the reason for the congestion and has developed plans to reduce the number of motorcycles and to improve public transport.
Expressway
Ho Chi Minh City has two expressways making up the North–South Expressway (Vietnam), North-South Expressway system, connecting the city with other provinces. The first expressway is Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway, Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Lương Expressway, opened in 2010, connecting Ho Chi Minh City with Tiền Giang province, Tiền Giang and the
Mekong Delta. The second one is Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Expressway, Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thành - Dầu Giây Expressway, opened in 2015, connecting the city with Đồng Nai Province, Đồng Nai, Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province, Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu and the Southeast (Vietnam), Southeast of Vietnam. The Ho Chi Minh City - Long Khanh Expressway, Ho Chi Minh City - Long Khánh Expressway is under planning and will be constructed in the near future.
Healthcare
The health care system of the city is relatively developed with a chain of about 100 government owned hospitals or medical centres and dozens of international facilities, as well as privately owned clinics.
The 1,400-bed Chợ Rẫy Hospital, upgraded by Japanese aid and the French-sponsored Institute of Cardiology and City International Hospital are among the top medical facilities in the South-East Asia region.
Education
High schools
Notable high schools in Ho Chi Minh City include Lê Hồng Phong High School, Lê Hồng Phong High School for the Gifted, High School for the Gifted, Phổ Thông Năng Khiếu High School for the Gifted, Trần Đại Nghĩa High School, Trần Đại Nghĩa High School for the Gifted, Nguyễn Thượng Hiền High School, Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai High School, , , Marie Curie High School, Võ Thị Sáu High School, and others. Though the former schools are all public, private education is also available in Ho Chi Minh City. High school consists of grade 10–12 (sophomore, junior, and senior).
List of Public High Schools in Ho Chi Minh City (non-exhaustive)
*High School for the Gifted, VNUHCM High School for the Gifted
*Lê Hồng Phong High School, Lê Hồng Phong High School for the Gifted
*Trần Đại Nghĩa High School, Trần Đại Nghĩa High School for the Gifted
*Nguyễn Thượng Hiền High School
*Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai High School
*Bùi Thị Xuân High School
*Phú Nhuận High School
*Bình Phú High School
*
*Mạc Đĩnh Chi High School
*
*Nguyễn Du Secondary School
*Nguyễn Hữu Cầu High School
*Nguyễn Hữu Huân High School
*Marie Curie High School
*Võ Thị Sáu High School
*Võ Trường Toản High School
*Hùng Vương High School
*Chu Văn An High School
*Trưng Vương High School
*Lương Thế Vinh High School
*Trần Khai Nguyên High School
*Ten Lơ Man High School
*Nguyễn Trãi High School
*Nguyễn Khuyến High School
*Nguyễn Du High School
*Nguyễn Công Trứ High School
*Trần Hưng Đạo High School
*Nguyễn Chí Thanh High School
*Nguyễn Thái Bình High School
*Thủ Đức High School
*Nguyễn Thị Diệu High School
List of Private High Schools in Ho Chi Minh City (non-exhaustive)
*British International School Ho Chi Minh City
*International School Ho Chi Minh City
*
Saigon South International School
*Ngô Thời Nhiệm High School
*Nguyễn Khuyến High School
*Khai Trí High School
*Quang Trung Nguyễn Huệ High School
*Trí Đức High School
*Trương Vĩnh Ký High School
*VinSchool
*VStar School
*Australian International School
*Western Australian International School Systems
*The Canadian International School
*Hong Ha Secondary-High School
Universities
Higher education in Ho Chi Minh City is a burgeoning industry; the city boasts over 80 universities and colleges with a total of over 400,000 students.
Notable universities include Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, with 50,000 students distributed among six schools; Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, The University of Technology (, formerly Phú Thọ National Center of Technology); Ho Chi Minh City University of Science, The University of Sciences (formerly Saigon College of Sciences); Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, The University of Social Sciences and Humanities (formerly Saigon College of Letters); Ho Chi Minh City International University, The International University; Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics and Law, The University of Economics and Law; and the newly established Ho Chi Minh City University of Information Technology, University of Information Technology.
Some other important higher education establishments include Ho Chi Minh City Pedagogical University, HCMC University of Pedagogy, University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City, University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City Architecture University, University of Architecture, Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Sylviculture, Nong Lam University (formerly University of Agriculture and Forestry), Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, University of Law, Technical Training University of Ho Chi Minh City, University of Technical Education, Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City, University of Banking, University of Industry, Ho Chi Minh City Open University, Open University, Sports and Physical Gymnastics University II, University of Sports and Physical Education, Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts University, University of Fine Arts, Ho Chi Minh City University of Culture, University of Culture, the Conservatory of Ho Chi Minh City, Conservatory of Music, the Saigon Institute of Technology, Văn Lang University, Saigon University, and Hoa Sen University.
In addition to the above public universities, Ho Chi Minh City is also home to several private universities. One of the most notable is RMIT International University Vietnam, a campus of Australian public research RMIT University with an enrollment of about 6,000 students. Tuition at RMIT is about US$40,000 for an entire course of study. Other private universities include The Saigon International University (or SIU) is another private university run by the Group of Asian International Education. Enrollment at SIU averages about 12,000 students Depending on the type of program, tuition at SIU costs US$5,000–6,000 per year.
Culture
Museums and art galleries
Due to its history, artworks have generally been inspired by both Western and Eastern styles. Famous locations for art in Ho Chi Minh City include Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts, and various art galleries located on Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa street, Trần Phú street, and Bùi Viện street.
File:Bảo tàng Mỹ thuật Tp (kiến trúc tổng thể) (2).jpg, Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts
File:Bảo tàng chứng tích chiến tranh, tp Ho chi minh vietnam, vo Van tan - panoramio.jpg, War Remnants Museum
The War Remnants Museum ( vi, Bảo tàng chứng tích chiến tranh) is a war museum at 28 Vo Van Tan, in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. It contains exhibits relating to the First Indochina War and the Vietnam War.
History
Op ...
Food and drink
Ho Chi Minh City cultivates a strong food and drink culture with lots of roadside restaurants, coffee shops, and food stalls where locals and tourists can enjoy local cuisine and beverages at low prices. It's currently ranked in the top five best cities in the world for street food.
Media
The city's media is the most developed in the country. At present, there are seven daily newspapers: ''Sai Gon Giai Phong, Sài Gòn Giải Phóng'' (''Liberated Saigon''), and its Vietnamese, investment and finance, sports, evening, and weekly editions; ''Tuổi Trẻ'' (''Youth''), the highest circulation newspaper in Vietnam; ' (''Young People''), the second largest circulation in the south of Vietnam; ' (''Labourer''); ' (''Sports''); ' (''Law''); ''The Saigon Times Daily'', an English-language newspaper; as well as more than 30 other newspapers and magazines. The city has hundreds of printing and publishing houses, many bookstores, and a widespread network of public and school libraries; the city's General Library houses over 1.5 million books. Locally based Ho Chi Minh City Television (HTV) is the second largest television network in the nation, just behind the national Vietnam Television (VTV), broadcasting 24/7 on 7 different channels (using analog and digital technology). Many major international TV channels are provided through two cable networks (SCTV and HTVC), with over one million subscribers. The ''Voice of Ho Chi Minh City'' is the largest radio station in south Vietnam.
Internet coverage, especially through ADSL connections, is rapidly expanding, with over 2,200,000 subscribers and around 5.5 million frequent users. Internet service providers (ISPs) operating in Ho Chi Minh City include the Vietnam Data Communication Company (VDC), Corporation for Finance and Promoting Technology (FPT), Netnam Company, Saigon Post and Telecommunications Services Corporation (Saigon Postel Corporation, SPT) and Viettel Company. The city has more than two million fixed telephones and about fifteen million cellular phones (the latter growing annually by 20%). Mobile phone service is provided by a number of companies, including Viettel Mobile, MobiFone, VinaPhone, and Vietnam Mobile.
Sport
, Ho Chi Minh City was home to 91 football fields, 86 swimming pools, 256 gyms. The largest stadium in the city is the 25,000-seat Thống Nhất Stadium, located on Đào Duy Từ Street, in Ward 6 of
District 10 District 10 may refer to:
Places
* District 10 (Ho Chi Minh city), Vietnam
* District 10 (Zürich), in Switzerland
* District 10, an electoral district of Malta
* District 10, a police district of Malta
* District 10 School, a historic school in ...
. The next largest is Army Stadium (Vietnam), Army Stadium, located near Tan Son Nhat Airport in Tân Bình district, Ho Chi Minh City, Tân Bình district. Army Stadium was of the venues for the 2007 AFC Asian Cup finals. As well as being a sporting venue, it is also the site of a music school. Phú Thọ Racecourse, another notable sporting venue established during colonial times, is the only racetrack in Vietnam. The city's Department of Physical Education and Sport also manages a number of clubs, including Phan Dinh Phung Club, Phan Đình Phùng, Thanh Da Club, Thanh Đa, and Yet Kieu Club, Yết Kiêu.
Ho Chi Minh City is home to a number of association football clubs. One of the city's largest clubs, Ho Chi Minh City F.C., is based at Thống Nhất Stadium. As ''Cảng Sài Gòn'', they were four-time champions of Vietnam's V.League 1 (in 1986, 1993–94, 1997, and 2001–02). Navibank Saigon F.C., founded as ''Quân Khu 4'', also based at Thống Nhất Stadium, emerged as champions of the First Division in the 2008 season, and were promoted to the V-League in 2009. The city's police department also fielded a football team in the 1990s, Công An Thành Phố, which won the V-League championship in 1995. Celebrated striker Lê Huỳnh Đức, now manager of SHB Đà Nẵng F.C., played for the Police F.C. from 1995 to 2000, setting a league record of 25 goals in the 1996 season. Since 2016, Sài Gòn F.C. has competed in V.League 1.
In 2011, Ho Chi Minh City was awarded an expansion team for the ASEAN Basketball League. SSA Saigon Heat is the first ever international professional basketball team to represent Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh City hosts a number of international sport events throughout the year, such as the AFF Futsal Championship and the Vietnam Vertical Run. Several other sports are represented by teams in the city, such as Irish (Gaelic) Football, rugby, cricket, volleyball, basketball, chess, athletics, and table tennis.
International relations
Twin towns – sister cities
Ho Chi Minh City is Sister city, twinned with:
* Ahmadi Governorate, Kuwait (2010)
* Almaty, Kazakhstan (2011)
* Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France (1998)
* Bangkok, Thailand (2014)
* Champasak Province, Laos (2001)
* Busan, South Korea (1995)
* Guangdong, Guangdong Province, China (2009)
* Guangxi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China (2013)
* Leipzig, Germany (2021)
* Lyon, France (1997)
* Manila, Philippines (1994)
* Minsk, Belarus (2008)
* Moscow, Russia (2003)
* Osaka Prefecture, Japan (2007)
*
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...
, Cambodia (1999)
* Saint Petersburg, Russia (2005)
* San Francisco, United States (1995)
* Shandong, Shandong Province, China (2013)
* Shanghai, China (1994)
* Sofia, Bulgaria (2015)
* Vientiane, Laos (2001)
* Vladivostok, Russia (2009)
* Yangon, Myanmar (2012)
* Zhejiang Province, China (2009)
Cooperation and friendship
In addition to its twin towns, Ho Chi Minh City is in cooperation with:
* Barcelona, Spain (2009)
* Budapest, Hungary (2013)
* Daegu, South Korea (2015)
* Geneva, Switzerland (2007)
* Guangzhou, China (1996)
* Johannesburg, South Africa (2009)
* Košice, Slovakia (2016)
* Moscow Oblast, Russia (2015)
* Northern Territory, Australia (2014)
* Osaka, Japan (2011)
* Queensland, Australia (2005)
* Seville, Spain (2009)
* Shenyang, China (1999)
* Shiga Prefecture, Japan (2014)
* Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia (2000)
* Toronto, Canada (2006)
* Yokohama, Japan (2009)
See also
*175 Hospital
*History of Organized Crime in Saigon
*List of East Asian ports
*List of historic buildings in Ho Chi Minh City
*List of historical capitals of Vietnam
Notes
References
External links
Official website (archived 18 February 2010)
Ho Chi Minh City People's Council*
{{portal bar, Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City,
1698 establishments in Vietnam
Populated places established in 1698
Cities in Vietnam
Populated places in Ho Chi Minh City
Port cities in Vietnam
Capitals of former nations