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Saigon Information

Saigon Rush Hour, Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Ho Chi Minh City may not have the charm and elegance of Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, but there is something invigorating and intoxicating about the bustling streets and waterside activity. Dramatic high-rise buildings, their windows sparkling in the sunshine, dominate the shabby French colonial ones that are tucked away at their feet, while saffron-robed monks collecting alms walk past glitzy car showrooms and karaoke bars. Street children laugh constantly as they shine the shoes of businessmen shouting into their mobile phones, trying to make themselves heard above the cacophony of the thousands of motorbikes buzzing around the city.

The skyline of the city has changed dramatically within the last 10 years from a low-rise cityscape to one whose central area, District 1, is dotted with glittering skyscrapers housing international hotels, apartments and companies. The wide Saigon River meanders through the east of the city and is the all-important link to the sea. This, as well as the range of air routes to the rest of Asia and beyond, has attracted investors in industries such as oil, gas, textiles, agriculture and marine products. Tourism is now a big earner of hard currency for the government.

This is helped by the climate, as Ho Chi Minh City is an all year-round destination and even the violent rainfalls of the rainy season (May to October) are over in a couple of hours, when the sun shines again and the city feels refreshed.

With a population of nearly seven million, Ho Chi Minh City (still known as Saigon), is Vietnam’s largest and most exciting city. While Hanoi is the centre of government, Ho Chi Minh City is the nation’s economic heart. Long before traffic choked the centre of the city, Saigon had already been christened the ‘‘Paris of Asia’’ for its wide boulevards lined with stately trees and magnificent French villas.

Saigon is one of the most evocative place names in Asia and definitely one of its most extraordinary cities. It is a city of amazing contrasts: elegant new international hotels, exclusive restaurants and trendy bars side-by-side with roadside noodle stalls, street children and vociferous cyclo drivers. Golf courses, bowling alleys and shopping malls vie for space with fruit and vegetable markets, pagodas and karaoke rooms.

Bustling, booming, crowded, noisy - all words that barely scratch the surface of the addictive and often mesmerising chaos that is Saigon. And yet there are the elegant colonial French boulevards and buildings, the Cathedral, the riverfront, the quiet moments at a sidewalk cafe watching the world literally go by you at breakneck speed. Saigon. A city that is almost indescribable and completely unforgettable.
The climate is generally hot and humid. There are two distinctive seasons: the rainy season, from May to November, and the dry season, from December to April. The annual average temperature is 27ºC. The hottest month is April and the lowest is December. It is warm all year.

 
 
 

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