| Page Views: 1,196 Last Visit to Ho Chi Minh City: February, 2005 | Saigon by iwys - last update: May 6, 2005 |
Saigon is a crazy city and you'll ether love it or hate it. I love it.
Architecturally it is very much a colonial city. When a fleet of French battleships sailed up the Saigon River in 1859, there were few permanent buildings standing in Saigon, as a peasant revolt in 1835 had razed the Citadel to the ground.
The French made Saigon the capital of their new colony of Cochin and set about building wide boulevards and grand buildings, like Notre Dame Cathedral, the opera house and the beautiful Hotel Continental. |
|  | Saigon was also the main centre of Vietnam's Chinese community and today in the Chinatown district of Cholon, you will see and hear Chinese dialects, such as Cantonese and Hokkien, still spoken.
Saigon does not have the great Vietnamese palaces and temples that you find in Hue, but it does have several interesting Chinese temples. |
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iwys' Ho Chi Minh City Travel Tips
 Comments for iwys about Ho Chi Minh City | | | | |
traveldave Fri Sep 26, 2008 17:46 UTC
I've always been fascinated by Saigon and would love to visit someday. BTW, thanks for checking out my Djibouti page a month or so ago. | gezbelle Wed Feb 28, 2007 01:40 UTC
thanks for sharing your hcmc tips. vietnam is on my list of "to-go" places and your tips have helped. the cu chi tunnels remind me of an experience i had in goreme, turkey in the darkened tunnels. | Nemorino Sat May 13, 2006 15:22 UTC
Yes, I also crawled through those Cu Chi Tunnels -- on my second visit to Vietnam in 1995. The first time, thirty years before, I was glad I could steer clear of that particular area. | hassan_abu Wed Apr 19, 2006 05:22 UTC
Sa-aun for sharing HCMC tips. Well, I actually loved the sweet potatoes (Viet Cong meal). Hope to try the Mekong Delta rive someday. Cheers, Abu |
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