Everything about Ho Chi Minh City totally explained
Ho Chi Minh City (
Vietnamese: Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh ) is the largest
city in
Vietnam and is located near the
Mekong Delta. Under the name,
Prey Nokor (
Khmer: ), it was the main port of
Cambodia, before being annexed by the Vietnamese in the 17th century. Under the name
Saigon (Vietnamese: Sài Gòn; ), it was the
capital of the French colony of
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 Định and renamed Hồ Chí Minh City (although the name
Sài Gòn is still frequently used, particularly by its citizens.)
The city center is situated on the banks of the
Saigon River, from the
South China Sea and south of
Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.
The metropolitan area, which consists of Hồ Chí Minh City metro area,
Thủ Dầu Một,
Di An,
Bien Hoa and surrounding towns, has more than 9 million people, making it the largest metropolitan area in
Vietnam and
Indochina.
Origin of the name
Original Khmer name
The city was known by its original Khmer inhabitants as
Prey Nokor . Prey Nokor means “forest”, or “wood” in
Khmer (Prey = “forest”;
Nokor = “empire,city”, from
Sanskrit nagara).
The name Prey Nokor is still the name used in Cambodia as of 2007, as well as the name used by the
Khmer Krom minority living in the delta of the Mekong.
Dr. Keng, Vansak, a famous French-educated Cambodian currently living in France, describes that the original word of Prey Nokor is
Prey Kor. Prey means Forest (all Cambodian people recognize the word Prey as Forest only, not God) and Kor is a kind of tree that its fruits can be produced cotton product. Prey Kor became Prey Nokor because the Khmer ethnic people want to refer to the place as a city; Nokor means City.
Traditional Vietnamese name
After Prey Nokor was settled by Vietnamese refugees from the north, in time it became known as
Sài Gòn. There is much debate about the origins of the Vietnamese name,
Sài Gòn, whose etymology is analyzed below.
It should be noted, however, that before the French colonization, the official Vietnamese name of Saigon was
Gia Định (
chu nom: ). In 1862, the French discarded this official name and adopted the name "Saigon", which had always been the popular name.
From an orthographic point of view, the Vietnamese name, Sài Gòn, is written in two words, which is the traditional convention in Vietnamese spelling. Some people, however, write the name of the city as SaiGon or Saigon in order to save space or give it a more Westernized look.
Sino-Vietnamese etymology
A frequently heard, and reasonable, explanation is that Sài is a Chinese loan word (
Chinese:, pronounced chái in
Mandarin) meaning “firewood, lops, twigs; palisade”, while Gòn is another Chinese loan word (Chinese:, pronounced gùn in Mandarin) meaning “stick, pole, bole”, and whose meaning evolved into “cotton” in Vietnamese (
bông gòn, literally “cotton stick”, for example “cotton plant”, then shortened to
gòn).
Some people say that this name originated from the many cotton plants that the
Khmer people had planted around Prey Nokor, and which can still be seen at Cây Mai temple and surrounding areas.. Generally, the term
Saigon refers only to the urban districts of Hồ Chí Minh City. The word "Saigon" can also be found on shop signs all over the country, even in
Hanoi.
Points of interest
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 Hall (
Dinh Thống Nhất), City Hall (
Uy ban Nhan dan Thanh pho), City Theater (
Nha hat Thanh pho), City Post Office (
Buu dien Thanh pho), State Bank Office (
Ngan hang Nha nuoc), City People's Court (
Toa an Nhan dan Thanh pho) and
Notre-Dame Cathedral (
Nhà thờ Đức Bà). One of the oldest hotels dating from the French colonial era is the
Hotel Majestic.
The city has various museums, such as the
Ho Chi Minh City Museum,
Museum of Vietnamese History and concerning modern history the Revolutionary Museum (
Bao tang Cach mang) and the
War Remnants Museum (Ho Chi Minh City).
Population
Ho Chi Minh City is home to a well-established ethnic Chinese population.
Cholon, which is made up of District 5 and parts of Districts 6, 10 and 11, serves as its
Chinatown.
With a population now exceeding 7 million (registered residents plus migrant workers as well as a metropolitan population of 10 million), Ho Chi Minh City is in need of vast increase in public infrastructure.. In the middle of 2006 the city's population was estimated to be 6,424,519 (of which 19 inner districts had 5,387,338 residents and 5 suburban districts had 1,037,181 inhabitants), or about 7.4% of the total population of Vietnam; making it the highest population-concentrated city in the country. As an administrative unit, its population is also the largest at the provincial level. As the largest economic and financial hub of Vietnam, HCMC has attracted more and more immigrants from other Vietnamese provinces in recent years; therefore, its population is growing rapidly. From 1999 - 2004, the city population has increased by about 200,000 people per year.
The majority of the population are ethnic Vietnamese (
Kinh) at about 90%. Other ethnic minorities include Chinese (
Hoa) with 8%, (the largest Chinese community in Vietnam) and other minorities (Khmer, Cham, Nung, Rhade) 2%.
The inhabitants of Ho Chi Minh City are usually known as "Saigonese" in English, "Saigonnais" in French and "dân Sài Gòn" in Vietnamese.
The
Kinh speak Vietnamese with their respective regional accents: Southern (about 50%), Northern (30%) and Central Vietnam (20%); while the
Hoa speak Cantonese,
Teochew (Chaozhou),
Hokkien,
Hainanese and
Hakka dialects of Chinese (only a few speak Mandarin Chinese). A varying degree of English is spoken especially in the tourism and commerce sectors where dealing with foreign nationals is a necessity, so English has become a de facto second language for some Saigonese.
According to some researchers the religious breakup in HCMC is as follows:
Buddhism (all sects and/or including
Taoism,
Confucianism,
Ancestor Worship) 80%,
Roman Catholic 11%,
Protestant 2%, others (
Cao Dai,
Hoa Hao,
Islam,
Hinduism,
Bahá'í Faith) 2%, and no religion or unknown 5%.
Economy
Ho Chi Minh City is the most important economic center in Vietnam as it accounts for a big percentage of Vietnam's economy. Some 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. Investors are still pouring in money into the city. Total local private investment was 160,000 billion VND ($10 billion) with 18,500 newly founded companies. Investment is trended to hi-tech and services, real estate projects. Currently, the city has 15 industrial parks (IP) and export-processing zones (EPZ), in addition to the
Quang Trung Software Park and the
Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP). Intel invested about 1 billion dollar factory in the city.There are 171 medium and large scale markets, tens of supermarket chains, dozens of luxury shopping malls and many modern fashion or beauty centers. There are many malls and shopping plazas developing in the city. Over 50 banks with hundreds of branches and about 20 insurance companies are situated inside the city. The first
first stock exchange of Vietnam was opened in the city in 2001.
In 2007, the city's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was estimated at USD 14.3 billion, or about USD 2,180 per capita, (up 12.6% on 2006) and accounting for 20% GDP of the country. The GDP calculating Parity Purchasing Power method (PPP), attained USD 71.5 billion, or about USD 10,870 per capita (approximately 3 times higher than the country's average). The city's Industrial Product Value was USD 6.4 billion, equivalent to 30% of the whole nation. Export - Import Turnover through HCMC ports took USD 36 billion, or 40% of the national total, of which, export revenue reached $18.3 billion, accounted for 40% of Vietnam’s total export revenue. At 2007, Ho Chi Minh City has also contributed about 20,5% to the national budget's revenue annually,.
In 2007, this city contributed 92,000 billion VND (approx. $6 billion), an increase of 30% compared to that of 2006.
In 2007, this city served 3 million foreign tourists, made up 70% that of Vietnam. Total cargo transport to Ho Chi Minh City’s ports reached 50.5 million
metric tonnes, nearly one-third of that in Vietnam..
Education
Higher education in Ho Chi Minh City is quite developed, concentrating about 76 universities and colleges with a total of over 380,000 students.
The city has over 1.7 million fixed telephones and about 6.6 million cellular phones (the latter growing annually by 20%). The Internet, especially through ADSL connections, is also rapidly expanding with over 1,200,000 subscribers and around 4.5 million frequent users.
The city has hundreds of printing and publishing houses, many bookstores and a widespread network of public and school libraries. The HCMC General Library with over 1.5 mìllion books, is a beautiful architectural building. One can visit the Museum of History, the Museum of Revolution, the Museum of Southern Women, the Museum of Southeastern's Armed Forces, the Museum of Fine Art, the Gallery for War Remnants, the Nha Rong Memorial House, the Ben Duoc Relic of Underground Tunnels and many private art galleries. Besides the Municipal Theatre, there are other great places of entertainment such as: the Bến Thành and Hòa Bình Theaters and the Lan Anh Music Stage. The Đầm Sen Tourist and Cultural Park, Suoi Tien Cultural Park and the Can Gio Eco beach resort are three recreational sites inside the city which are popular with visitors.
There are many Pho chains in the city to enjoy and they're very cheap. The city has hundreds of ranked hotels with over 18,000 rooms, including ten luxury 5 star hotels. However, backpacking travelers frequent the "Western Quarter" on
Pham Ngu Lao street in District 1.
People's Committee
The
Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee is the administrative/government organization that manages
Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon),
Vietnam. Its equivalent in the
U.S. context would be a city government. The "Chairman of the People's Committee" is the head of the government, and may be considered the equivalent of
Mayor. The current Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee (2004-2009) is Mr. Le Hoang Quan. There are several Vice Chairmen and chairwomen on the committee with responsibility for various City Government Departments.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ho Chi Minh City'.
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