Postcard-Ready Vintage Album Highlights a Lonesome Hanoi in the 1920s
Looking at past albums of our cities today, I’m always stricken by a bewildering vastness — every street, every square, every building seemed to have been constructed in a ghost town, serving lonesome phantoms and nonchalant horse-drawn wagons.
French Illustrated Encyclopedia Paints the Slices of Vietnam Life in the 1900s
"To effectively govern colonial peoples, the foremost requirement is a thorough understanding of the very people one rules over," so believed Paul Doumer, the second Governor-General of French Indochina, who spent his career imposing the imperial French government's agenda on studying the culture of their colonized subjects.
Portrait of a Jubilant Saigon on the Precipice of Tết in 1992
Tết in 1992 was an especially fortuitous time to be a foreign arrival to Saigon.
In 1992 Vietnam, the Streets Were Brimming With Love and Life
How has your life been transformed in the past 30 years? Changes might materialize overnight, but some tend to creep up on you at a glacial pace. Through this collection of images from 1992, mull over how Vietnam as a country has grown with every 12-month cycle.
Vintage French Book Illustrations Depict a Quaint Indochina in 1903
In this rare collection of images from 1903 Indochina, life in the peninsula appears as if in a dream, with rows of colonial-style houses in between heritage trees and natural landscapes that weren’t interrupted by concrete.
Paul Christiansen in Saigon
Did You Know That There's a Mummy on Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm Boulevard?
Why is there a mummy on display in Saigon?
Brian Letwin in Heritage
Tàu Cánh Ngầm: The Curious Case of Saigon’s Lost Soviet Hydrofoils
Not long ago, hulking “creatures” glided atop the waters between Saigon and Vũng Tàu. Like the dinosaurs that came before them, they slowly disappeared, until all that was left were their skeletons.
Relive Your Memories of Saigon Water Park via These Photos by One of Its Makers
Although water parks involve a combination of two of the most tedious human experiences, standing in lines and prolonged direct sun exposure, the now-demolished Saigon Water Park was an icon of 2000s Saigon that remains a crucial cornerstone of many city dwellers' memories.
Saigon’s Famous Streets And Squares: Tôn Thất Thiệp Street
One of the oldest streets in Saigon, Tôn Thất Thiệp street was known in the early French colonial period firstly as rue No 9 and then from 1863 as rue de l'Église, after Saigon's ill-fated first Roman...
[Photos] Xe Vélo Solex: A Forgotten Saigon Classic
Both bicycles and motorbikes have long played an important role in the lives of Vietnamese (and at times, its occupiers). Starting in the 1950s, French-made motorized bicycles known as Solex became in...
Saigon’s Famous Streets and Squares: Quách Thị Trang Square
In this, the first of a new series about the history of the famous streets and squares of Saigon and Chợ Lớn, Tim Doling looks at the history of Quách Thị Trang square.
21 Beautiful Photos Of 1961 Cho Lon
Cho Lon has long been a center of commerce and culture, tracing its history back to 1778 when the Chinese population of Bien Hoa was forced to relocate after being targeted by Tay Son forces in retali...
The Saigon Tax Trade Center Mosaic Staircase: A Forgotten Moroccan Masterpiece
When the Hồ Chí Minh City authorities announced in 2014 that the Saigon Tax Trade Centre was to be demolished and replaced with a 43-storey tower block, many voices were raised in opposition to the de...
Saving Saigon Tax Trade Center’s Mosaic Staircase, 'A Priceless Work Of Art'
Six months after the Hồ Chí Minh City People’s Committee’s promise that both internal and architectural and design features of the old Saigon Tax Trade Centre would be preserved and incorporated into ...
[Photos] The Japanese Prostitutes of Colonial Vietnam
Over at her Saigon - Cho Lon blog, Chen Bichun recently explored one of the many rarely discussed layers of history – the thousands of Japanese women who were forced into prostitution across Asia...
Date With The Wrecking Ball: Maison du Combattant
Yet another piece of old Saigon heritage faces the wrecking ball following the recent public auction and sale of the former Maison du Combattant “gold land” site at 23 Lê Duẩn.
20 Captivating Photos Take You Back To 1960s Saigon
Despite Saigon’s rapid modernization over the past two decades, old photos of the city from the 1960s reveal a number of persisting characteristics – from sleeping xe om drivers and seas of motorbikes...
Date With The Wrecking Ball: The Former Collège de Can-Tho
Over the past week, Facebook has been awash with articles about the planned demolition of a much-loved Cần Thơ institution, the Châu Văn Liêm High School (Trường Trung Học Phổ Thông Châu Văn Liêm).
Saigon's Endangered Heritage Buildings: The Top 10
We’re now over half way through 2015, and what better time to update that depressing list of Saigon built heritage in imminent danger of destruction.
This Saigon Art Deco Gem Will Shine Once Again
The area around Ben Thanh Market is quickly becoming an epicenter for development. As new buildings rise, such as The One Ho Chi Minh City and the Eximbank Tower, old colonial structures are seemingly...
Old Saigon Building Of The Week: The Hùng King Temple
The Hùng King Temple at 2 Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm was originally built in 1927-1929 under the name Temple du Souvenir Annamite (“Annamite Temple of remembrance”), primarily to honour the memory of Vietnames...
[Photos] Take A Walk Through The Streets Of Old Hanoi
At the turn of the 20th century, people often referred to the Vietnamese capital as “the 36 streets of Hanoi.” Most of these 36 streets lie in today’s Old Quarter and still retain names that reflect t...
Icons Of Old Saigon: Shophouse Architecture
The colonial shophouse, one of Saigon’s most iconic forms of architecture, is in imminent danger of extinction.
Brian Letwin in Heritage
[Photos] Saigon Then & Now: Part 4
We’re back with another set of our “Then and Now” photos which contrast old images of Saigon with their present day counterparts. For a much larger collection, head over to the Saïgon-Chợ Lớn The...
Take A Walk Through Saigon’s 150-Year-Old Sewers
Before Saigon begins to demolish the 150-year-old French-built sewers that lie under the streets of District 1, it looks like the city is allowing select camera crews into the leaky, cockroach-infeste...
A Second Chance For Tân An Communal House
With so many old buildings being destroyed in the name of development, it's encouraging to learn that one of the city's oldest communal houses, the Đình Tân An at 26 Bis Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm in Đa Kao, h...
[Photos] How Saigonese Flew In 1965
These photos taken by American photographer, Bill Eppridge, in 1965 capture a day in the life at Tan Son Nhat Airport’s civilian terminal. The original airport, little more than a landing strip, was b...
The 'Leaning Cathedral' Of Saigon
Soon after its completion, Saigon’s iconic Notre Dame Cathedral developed an embarrassing tilt.
