Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnamese: Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh pronunciation (help·info)) is the largest city in Vietnam and is located near the Mekong River delta. Under the name Prey Nokor (Khmer: ), it was a hamlet of Cambodia, before being annexed by the Vietnamese in the 16th century. Known as Saigon (Sài Gòn) (pronunciation (help·info)) until the end of the Vietnam War, it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina, and later of the former state of South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975. In 1975, Saigon was merged with the surrounding province of Gia Định and renamed Ho Chi Minh City (although Saigon is still frequently used). The city center is situated on the banks of the Saigon River, 60 km from the South China Sea [1]. The metropolitan area which consists of Ho Chi Minh city metro area, Bien Hoa, Thu Dau Mot and surrounding towns has more than 9 million people, making it the largest metropolitan area in Vietnam and Indochina.



On May 1, 1975, after the fall of South Vietnam, the now ruling communist government renamed the city after the alias of their leader Hồ Chí Minh. The official name is now Thành phố (meaning city) Hồ Chí Minh, often abbreviated TPHCM. In English this is translated as Ho Chi Minh City, abbreviated HCMC, and in French it is translated as Hô Chi Minh Ville (the circumflex is sometimes omitted), abbreviated HCMV. Still, the old name Sài Gòn/Saigon is widely used by Vietnamese and is found in company names, book titles and sometimes on airport departure boards (the code for Tan Son Nhat International Airport is SGN).

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), Revolutionary Museum (Bao tang Cach mang), 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).

Ho Chi Minh City is home to a well-established ethnic Chinese population. Cholon, now known as District 5 and the parts of Districts 6, 10 and 11, serves as its Chinatown.

With a population now exceeding 7 million (registered residents plus migrant workers), 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. The two most prominent projects are the Thu Thiem city center in District 2 and the Phu My Hung New City Center in District 7 (as part of the Saigon South project) where various international schools such as Saigon South International (The American School), the Japanese school, Australia's Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, the Taiwan and Korea schools are located).






Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnamese: Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh pronunciation (help·info)) is the largest city in Vietnam and is located near the Mekong River delta. Under the name Prey Nokor (Khmer: ), it was a hamlet of Cambodia, before being annexed by the Vietnamese in the 16th century. Known as Saigon (Sài Gòn) (pronunciation (help·info)) until the end of the Vietnam War, it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina, and later of the former state of South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975. In 1975, Saigon was merged with the surrounding province of Gia Định and renamed Ho Chi Minh City (although Saigon is still frequently used). The city center is situated on the banks of the Saigon River, 60 km from the South China Sea [1]. The metropolitan area which consists of Ho Chi Minh city metro area, Bien Hoa, Thu Dau Mot and surrounding towns has more than 9 million people, making it the largest metropolitan area in Vietnam and Indochina.

Main post office, 1991Hồ Chí Minh City is a municipality that exists at the same level as Vietnam's provinces. As such, it has a similar political structure to its provinces, with a People's Council of 95 elected deputies, and a People's Committee of 13 members chosen by the council, being the principal local governmental entities. The People's Council Chairman is the top governmental official while the People's Committee Chairman is the top executive of the city, instead of a single mayor position as in other cities in the world. The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) leads all political-economic-social activities in the country, therefore the CPV HCMC Committee Secretary is really the highest ranking leader of the city.

The municipality has been divided into twenty-four administrative divisions since December 2003. Five of these {Area: 1,601 km²} are designated as suburban districts ("Huyện" in Vietnamese), covering the urbanized - farmland around the city which is included in the municipality's official boundaries. These districts are named Nhà Bè, Cần Giờ, Hóc Môn, Củ Chi, and Bình Chánh. The remaining nineteen divisions {Area: 494 km²} are found in the city itself. Only seven of these nineteen inner districts ("Quận" in Vietnamese) have names (Tân Bình, Bình Thạnh, Phú Nhuận, Thủ Dức, Bình Tân, Tân Phú and Gò Vấp) - the remainder are simply numbered from one to twelve. Each inner district is sub-divided into many wards ("Phường" in Vietnamese), while a suburban district usually consists of many communes and townships ("Xã" and "Thị trấn" in Vietnamese). Since December 2006, Ho Chi Minh City has had 259 wards, 58 communes and 5 townships (see List of HCMC administrative units below).