Thursday, October 8, 2009

Ho Chi Minh City (Sai Gon) - The Biggest City In Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City, commonly known as Sai Gon or by the abbreviations HCMC or HCM, is the biggest city in Vietnam. Under the name Sai Gon, it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina and later of the Republic Of Vietnam (South Vietnam) from 1954 to 1975. In 1976, Sai Gon merged with the surrounding province of Gia Dinh and was officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City. However, the name Sai Gon - formally known as District 1 - is still used commonly.


Today, the city's core is still adorned with wide elegant boulevards and historic French colonial buildings. The most prominent structures in the city center are Reunification Palace, City Hall, Municipal Theatre, City Post Office, State Bank Office, City People's Court and Notre-Dame Cathedral. Some of the historic hotels are the Hotel Majestic, dating from the French colonial era, and the Rex Hotel, Caravelle Hotel some former hangouts for American officers and war correspondents in the 1960s and 1970s.


With a big population now, Ho Chi Minh City is in need of vast increase in public infrastructure. To meet this need, the city and central governments have embarked on an effort to develop new urban centers.


Ho Chi Minh City is the most important economic center in Vietnam as it accounts for a high proportion of Vietnam's economy. Ho Chi Minh City plays an important driving impetus of economy of Vietnam.


The economy of Ho Chi Minh City covers different fields, from mining, seafood processing, agriculture, construction to tourism, finance, industry, trading. The consumption demand of Ho Chi Minh City is much higher than other provinces and municipalities of Vietnam, 1.5 times higher than that of Ha Noi.


About 300,000 businesses, including many large enterprises, are involved in high-tech, electronic, processing and light industries, also in construction, building materials and agro-products. Also crude oil is a popular economic base in Ho Chi Minh City. Investors are still pouring money into the city.


There are 171 medium and large scale markets, several supermarket chains, shopping malls, fashion, and beauty centers. Additional malls and shopping plazas are being developed within the city. Over 50 banks with hundreds of branches and about 20 insurance companies are also located inside the city. The first stock exchange in Vietnam was opened in the city in 2001.


Ho Chi Minh City is home to hundreds of cinemas and theatres, with cinema and dramatic ticketing revenue accounts for 60-70% of Vietnam’s total revenue in this industry. Unlike other dramatic teams in Vietnam’s provinces and municipalities, those in Ho Chi Minh City live on their own income and keep their theaters active everyday, and are not subsidized by the Vietnamese government. The city is home to most of the private movie companies in Vietnam.


www.wikipedia.org

32 comments:

  1. I hope to someday visit Vietnam. I have many vietnamese friends and they all say it is beautiful.

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  2. Woa, these photos are wonderful.
    I like HCMCity than HN. Sometimes, I think I want to go to HCMCity and find a job.
    Specially, I love Saigon's voice. It's lovely :">

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  3. Kris, welcome to Vietnam ! Vietnamese are friendly and there are many wonderful sceneries ^^

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  4. Ken, I'm living & working in HCMC but I like Ha Noi's voice, especially girls of Ha Noi :P

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  5. @SK:
    OH,so funny.Uhm U should go to Hanoi and I should go to HCM :)) Ha Ha

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  6. Ken, I hope to visit Ha Noi soon ! I went to Ha Noi when I was 4 years old :D

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  7. A good post. You forget to mention about the traffic though! Myself, I prefer the quieter countryside, particularly Nha Trang (that's where my wife is from). HCM was just a place we had to go for paperwork.

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  8. Thanks for your comment, Jason :) It's very long time to visit Nha Trang again. That's a wonderful place with many beautiful sceneries. I will create a post of Nha Trang soon ^^

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  9. maybe someday i go to this country. if my GA increase to 400 $ a month hehehe

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  10. Iyan, hope you can get that amount or more ;)

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  11. Hello - I just spent 10 lovely days in Saigon. I visited for furniture expo, then spent a few days in Mekong Delta. Its such a great and exciting city, I love it. Your photos are great. I put some pics of my trip on my blog - you might enjoy from an Aussie's point of view.
    Cheers, Karen

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  12. Vietnam indeed progress
    http://www.healthy-omega-3-supplement.com

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  13. Dragonfly, I will visit your blog for pics of your trip soon :)

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  14. Yeah, you're right ! Audiobookspeople. Vietnam is going up and I think that we need to do more for better Vietnam in future ^^

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  15. Nice pictures of Ho Chi Minh City. Makes me wanna visit your country. I am from Penang,Malaysia.

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  16. :) like the photos. Especially on the night view.

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  17. hana, thanks for your visiting :) I also like the night views much ;)

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  18. what a beautifull place. I love those old buildings, lovely!!!!!!

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  19. mignonesia, thanks for your comment. Hope you can visit HCM City soon ;)

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  20. Very beautiful places, make me wanna visiting Vietnam!

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  21. Rafael Lam, you're always welcome ^^

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  22. Banner exchange please, yours has been added on myblog...would you mind to do as i do, thanks !

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  23. Zamrud, sent you a message ! Thanks for visiting mine :)

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  24. my parents have ever visited Ho Chi Minh, but I never. I wanna go there someday. A very beautiful citylight in the night.

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  25. Meutia Halida Khairani, thanks for your comments :) Hope you can visit Vietnam soon ;)

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  26. This is a great blog!! Your pictures are very professional.

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  27. Luke Spencer, thanks for your nice comment :) I love these pictures, too ^^ I don't own them, they're made by a group of professional photographers who share many nice pictures of Vietnam on some forums online.

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  28. Cruiser, thanks so much for visiting my blog :)

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