Saigon, the Pearl of the Orient, where France built a European capital in the tropics and a Vietnamese city kept every stone of it. Boulevards laid over filled canals, a red brick cathedral and an opera house, a Chinatown of sea-goddess temples two miles west, and the palace whose gates a tank crashed through on the last morning of a war. A downtown of beautiful contradictions.
Articles
Ho Chi Minh City Travel Guide: How Many Days, Getting Around, When to Go (2026)
Cultural·5 min
One Day in Ho Chi Minh City: A Walkable Saigon Itinerary (2026)
Cultural·6 min
What to Eat in Ho Chi Minh City: A Saigon Food Guide (2026)
Cultural·5 min
The City Beside the City: Reading Cho Lon's Assembly Halls
Companion·7 min
Empire in Stone: How Saigon Kept the Buildings and Changed Their Meaning
Companion·9 min
The Last Morning: What Happened at Independence Palace
Companion·7 min
The City That Did Not Burn: Saigon on the Last Day
Companion·7 min
The Eiffel Myth: Who Actually Built the Saigon Central Post Office
Companion·8 min
The Sea Goddess of Cho Lon: Inside Thien Hau Temple
Companion·6 min
How to See Saigon: A City of Kept Frames
Cultural·6 min
Best Self-Guided Walking Tours in Ho Chi Minh City (2026)
Cultural·4 min
