Home » About

Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City is the heart and soul of Vietnam. It’s a bustling cosmopolitan city known for its markets, architecture, and most of all — its warm, friendly people. Ho Chi Minh City never sleeps. Everywhere you look there is color and movement. Flocks of schoolgirls on bicycles, their traditional white "Ao Dai" tunics fluttering in the breeze; vendors engulfed in bright bubbles of balloons or pushing carts heaped with wares. The French influence is still apparent in Ho Chi Minh City – from the board tree-lined boulevards to the imposing villas and colonial architecture.

Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam and is located near the Mekong Delta. Under the name Saigon, it was the capital of the French colony Cochinchina, and later of the independent state of South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975. In 1975, Saigon was merged with the surrounding province of Gia Djnh and renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

The city center is situated on the banks of the Saigon River, 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the South China Sea and 1,760 kilometers (1,094 miles) south of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

The metropolitan area, which consists of Ho Chi Minh City, and surrounding towns, has more than 9 million people making it the largest metropolitan area in Vietnam and Indochina.

Welcome to Ho Chi Minh City!