Xin chao!: Sai Gon Overview

Contents
A/ Overview

1/ Kingdom of motorbikes
2/ City of coffee
3/ Paradise for foodie
4/ Old French colonial architecture

5/ A letter of a Saigonese from USA
6/ Mangrove forest - world biosphere reserve and Cu Chi tunnel

B/ General information

C/ History

D/ Best time to visit

E/ Some pictures of Saigon today

A/ Overview
1/ Kingdom of motorbikes

Sai Gon is a city that you either love it or hate it.

More than 5 million motorbikes are on the move, making most of the city streets and boulevards never sleep. To some newcomers, its so hard to move around the "crazy" city, but to many people its really interesting to cross the Sai Gon streets on foot. Driving a motorbike by yourself? Many foreign visitors did it and according to them, it gave a very great and exciting experience. Dare to do that? Its a big challenge giving out on Lonely Planet guidebook.

The biggest city of Vietnam with nearly 10 million people means 1 of 2 city's person has 1 motorbike. While the public buses are still in shortage, the streets are narrow and there is no subway, getting around the city by motorbike is the first choice. Without motorbike, a Saigonese feel that he or she is in stuck at home. This makes Sai Gon unique and different with other cities in Southeast Asia.

Most of the motorbikes are made in Japan (Honda Super Dream, Honda Wave, Suzuki, Max Kawasaki...), some from Taiwan and China... I myself have a Honda Super Dream.

Clip: Youtube...

Video: vietnamguidebook

Pics: Vnexpress.net

2/ City of coffee

Vietnam is the 2nd largest coffee exporter (Number one is Brazil). In 2011, the country exported about 1.3-million ton coffee. And Saigon is the city of iced coffee without Star Buck (*)

Most Saigonese like coffee. They drink coffee like a must-have. And they drink coffee all the times, since early morning to noon and even evening

Conveniently, street's coffee is loved by a lot of Saigon people. With 10,000VND, you can have an iced milk coffee (0.5USD). Beside street's coffee, modern coffee shops are everywhere, some with very nice design.

Want to stock some, come to many supermarkets and look for instant Trung Nguyen coffee.

Would like to enjoy traditional Vietnamese coffee, come to a lot of traditional markets where they sell coffee beans and grind them become powder. And dont forget to buy a filter.

(*) Star Buck has just opened 01 cafe shop in Saigon

Pic: vietnamguidebook

3/ Paradise for foodie

Point of convergence

Vietnam is a big name on the World’s culinary map and Saigon is the culinary center of Vietnam. It’s the place where you can enjoy many favorite dishes of Mekong delta, Tay Ninh, Vung Tau, Nha Trang, Quang Ngai, Hoi An, Hue and Hanoi... The city itself also has some own famous foods such as “Banh mi” (Saigon bread), “Com tam” (Steamed rice served with grilled pork meat, sweet and sour cucumber/carrot and fish sauce)...

Besides Vietnamese foods, its easy to find the International ones in Saigon such as Chinese (Cantonese, Chaozhou), Thai, Cambodian, Indian, Korean, Japanese, Frech, Italian...

Time

The city never sleeps and the restaurants, food stalls open almost 24 hours.

Price

Where you can have a full breakfast with only 1USD? Its Saigon.

Please see Food and Drink for details.

4/ Old French architecture

Saigon seems to be always on the move but there are some places in the city where you can feel the time is slowing down. They are the areas where the old beautiful French colonial architectures standing for more than 100 years.

The first area is Dong Khoi street with Opera House, Continental Hotel.

The second area is Paris Commune street with Notre Dame Cathedral and General Post Office

The third area is the oldest high schools located on many streets of the city such as Le Quy Don (Collège Chasseloup-Laubat), Le Hong Phong (Petrus Ky), Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, Marie Curie... After 100 years, many new high schools have been built but those oldest high schools are still the most beautiful ones of the city.

The fourth area is the streets themselves with two parallel rows of high hopea odorata and tamarind trees. This makes Saigon different with Hanoi.

Song: Flying flowers (hopea odorata flower)

5/ A letter of a Saigonese from USA

Homesickness named Saigon of a girl who now stays in USA!

6/ Mangrove forest - world biosphere reserve and Cu Chi tunnel

Would like to leave the crowded, noisy city center?

Looking for a place where you can indulge yourself in the nature and enjoy the fresh air?

Want to know what the "floating" and "underground" guerilla bases are?

Come to Can Gio and Cu chi districts

Covering an area of 74,750 ha, the mangrove forest of Can Gio district is the "green lung" of the city, a world biosphere reserve, and is home to the famous "Floating" guerilla base

Established in 1940s, the system of Cu Chi tunnel in Cu Chi district reached its height in Vietnam war with a total length of more than 200km and was called by many names such as "Underground village", "Dangerous Secret Zone", "Steely Zone"...

From the city center, It takes about one and a half to Can Gio/Cu Chi by bus.(about 60 - 75km). Or you can go take the Saigon waterways to these places (about 1 hour by express boat)

Can Gio mangrove forest

Cu Chi tunnel system

Pics: vietnamguidebook

B/ General information
Area: 2,094 square kilometers

Administrative units: 24 districts. District 1 and 3 constitue the center of Saigon. Distrist 5 and part of district 6, 10, 11 are China town. Phu My Hung of district 7 and Thu Thiem of district 2 are new high standard living areas with many villas, modern buildings, international schools and university, international hospital...

Population: about 10 million (2012)

Community grouping: Thanks to its strategic position, Saigon is the meeting place of many ethnic groups from the North, Central and South of Vietnam through different periods of time. Kinh is the largest group while three main minority groups are Chinese, Khmer, Cham. The Chinese group accounts for about 50% of all Chinese in Vietnam. Most of them stay in District 5, 6, 10, 11 (China town)

Foreigner
Being the largest and most dynamic city of Vietnam, Saigon attracts a lot of foreigners who come here to do investment and work. They even establish a large community such as Korean town in Phu My Hung, district 7 and on Pham Van Hai street or Japanese town on Le Thanh Tong street, district 1...

Geographical location: Saigon is located from 10 10’-10 38’ North and 106o2’-106o54’ East. The city has Binh Duong province in the North, Tay Ninh province in the Northwest, Dong Nai province in the East and Northeast, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province in the Southeast, and Long An and Tien Giang provinces in the West and Southwest.

By land, Saigon is: 210Km from Mui Ne
450Km from Nha Trang
980Km from Hoi An
1015Km from Da Nang
1105Km from Hue
1,730Km from Hanoi
300Km from Da Lat

C/ History

The first 75 years

In 1998, Saigon-Ho Chi Minh City celebrated its 300th anniversary, but the period of the 75 years between 1623 and 1698 may be regarded as the time in which Saigon was founded. During this period, hundreds, and perhaps thousands of Vietnamese families migrated from the Center (the Inner Section) and the North (the Outer Section) to settle in the plains of the Dong Nai and the Mekong rivers. Saigon at that time already was booming with agricultural production, trading businesses, and handicrafts, enriching the prosperous customs tax office. Yet, all those peaceful economic activities were interrupted quite a few times.

1698 was formally choosen as the foundation year of Saigon as it was the time the Nguyen Lord ordered Grand Mandarin Nguyen Huu Kinh (known also as Nguyen Huu Canh) to inspect the South, formalizing the control of this region.

French colonial period (1859 – 1954)

In 1859, the French colonialists occupied Saigon and turned it into a colony. Under the French occupation, Saigon as well as the whole country organized many patriotic movements to struggle against the invaders in spite of the Nguyen dynasty’s attitude of weakly accepting the situation. But they all ended in failure.

On 5th June 1911, Nguyen Tat Thanh (President Ho Chi Minh later) left Saigon’s Nha Rong port for Europe, witnessed the success of Russia’s October Revolution, which opened a new era with Lenin’s theses on people and colonial powers, and then brought back and publicized Marxism-Leninism during the formation of Vietnam’s working class and the Communist Party.

In 1945, with the success of the August Revolution, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was born , turning the Vietnamese from slaves to owners of the country, and the Party to the political power holder. However, after the August Revolution, Vietnam encountered such difficulties as illiteracy, hunger and invasion. In the North, 200,000 Chinese soldiersentered the country, while British soldiers entered the South to take over Japanese soldiers who had surrendered. The British forces also helped the French colonialists to reoccupy Vietnam. In this context, 28 days after the Saigon people seized political power, on September 23, 1945, French invaders occupied Saigon again and the whole southern region, as a step to invading the entire country. They established an “autonomous” Southern Region, with a puppet government, Saigon being the capital.

With the Dien Bien Phu victory and the Geneva Treaty (1954), the French withdrew of Vietnam. The end of 95 years of French colonial regime in Saigon.

American – Vietnam war (1954 – 1975)

The French colonialists withdrew of Vietnam but U.S then entered to replace the French, aiming at a long-term occupation in the South, and Saigon was chosen as the capital of South Vietnam (from latitude 17 southward).

After 21 years, On April 30, 1975, Saigon and the entire southern region were liberated.

In 1976, after the reunification, the National Assembly unanimously decided to rename Saigon-Cholon-Gia Dinh as Ho Chi Minh City.

(According to “300 years of Saigon-HCM City – Chinh Tri Quoc Gia Publishing

House”)

D/ Best time to visit

1/ About 20 December to 15 February is the best time to visit Saigon city. The Northeastern seasonal winds bring the a "small winter" to the city that is usually hot arounnd the year. The average temperature at this period is about 28oC. In the evening and early morning, its a little bit cold with the temperature sometimes drops down to some 18oC. When the sun rise up, its warmer and the city enjoy a nice long day with the temperature of some 25oC.

Outside of Saigon, say Mekong delta and Cambodia (Phnom Penh and Siem Reap), the weather is almost the same. Therefore its nice to combine the trips to these destinations.

Saigonese and the people in the country celebrate the Vietnam traditional new year in February. Thats the time you can see everybody look happier. Everywhere is full of smiles.

2/ Saigon is the city you can visit anytime as it rarely suffers bad weather, especially storm

3/ In general, there are two seasons in Saigon. The dry season last from November to April. The rainy season last from May to October.
April is usually the hotest month of the year. the weather can climb up to 38 - 39oC
It usually rains in the early morning and late evening. The rain is not long too. Therefore it will not spoil your journey.

E/ Some pictures of Saigon today

Hue Nguyen boulevard became flower street in Vietnam traditional new year (Dragon year - 2012)