Ho Chi Minh City Tours, Day Trips & Excursions – Viet Vision Travel

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is a sprawling urban mass, larger than Hanoi, the nation’s capital, but somehow less cohesive and certainly with a far shorter history. When a group of Chinese refugees from the Qing Empire arrived in the region, the Cambodian governor turned to the Nguyen Lords of Hue for help. The price of settling the Chinese and restoring order was Vietnamese suzerainty. Later, the city expanded to join the nearby Chinese set- dement of Cholon- Saigon has always had a strong Chinese flavor to Saigon.

In 1859, the city was seized by France and soon became the chief city of the French colony of Cochinchina. The city developed rapidly, acquiring something of the character of French provincial town. For nearly two decades, between 1956 and 1975, Saigon functioned as the capital of the anti-communist Republic of Vietnam.