You have about 2 hours to say your last goodbyes to the interior of Saigon’s historic Tax Center.
The management board of the building has told traders to start packing their things at 2pm this afternoon, 5 days earlier than scheduled, to accommodate work on the city’s first metro line, reports Tuoi Tre.
Traders, who were already trying to sell off their goods at heavy discounts ahead of the originally planned September 30 closing, were taken aback by the news.
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Say Goodbye To Saigon's Tax Center
The 90-year-old structure that will be demolished later this year to make way for a 40-story tower which will include shops, a supermarket, a convention center, a hotel and offices.
Tran Thuy Lien, the center’s director said that the new trade center’s basement will connect to the area’s new metro station that is planned to open in 2018.
The current building, originally named the Grands Magasins Charner, opened in 1924 and quickly became “the place to shop in Saigon,” according to Saigon historian Tim Doling who provides an excellent historical account of the building’s history on his blog, Historic Vietnam.
