Ho Chi Minh City Tourist

Capitalist/Communist Vietnam

Following a ceasefire agreement, the last American ground troops left Vietnam in 1973 and in 1975, Saigon (officially now named Ho Chi Minh City) fell to the North Vietnamese Army.  The fall of Saigon led to a considerable exodus, not just of people close to the South Vietnamese Government and military, but also of the better-off, better educated and more enterprising.  Members of these groups who failed to escape the Communist takeover, were all too often persecuted and the mass collectivisation of farms and factories caused millions to flee, many by boat.  The term "Boat People" became synonymous with Vietnam.

For more than 10 years after 1975 the united Vietnamese economy was stagnant at best.  Only after 1986 and the removal of the "old guard" did the Communist Government take steps to liberalize the economy and attempt to increase growth, particularly in the exporting sectors.  Known as Doi Moi (Renovation) the policy allowed for the privatisation of many farms and smaller businesses.

It has taken the best part of the last 25 years to finally erase most of trauma and destruction that Vietnam's long wars caused.  Growth under the Doi Moi policy really picked up about 1990 and between then and 1997, Vietnam averaged over eight per cent per annum.  Just when that growth level had reduced to a still very respectable average of seven per cent between 2000 and 2007, along came the 2008 debacle in its biggest export market - America, which took 20 per cent of Vietnam's exports in 2010.

A slowing of growth, high inflation, a major if controlled devaluation of the currency, questions being asked by government departments as to where and why inefficiencies have occurred - these are not matters that are meant to concern a controlled, communist economy.  Nor is looking to the United States for support!

Although the state-owned sector of the economy still accounts for a 40 per cent share - 33 per cent in the country's most dynamic city, Saigon - it looks like prosperity and pragmatism will be the country's driving forces, just leave the politics aside, for there is no doubt that Vietnam, now with over 90 million people, wants to be one of the "developed" countries in the world by 2020.  What's to stop it?

On 08 June 2011, Viet Nam News reported on the proceedings of a conference on the domestic marine economy taking place in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa. According to Government sources, the "ocean economy" earns Vietnam over $10 billion per year  The important message from Nguyen Van Cu, head of the Viet Nam Administration of Seas and Islands however, was pretty negative.  The Ocean Economy had "not reached its full potential...infrastructure in ocean and coastal regions, as well as islands, remained poor...Ports were small and equipment was out of date.

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC Vietnam) | Vietnam tours

In 1975, at the end of the war, the North Vietnamese captured Saigon, and in 1976, when Vietnam was reunified, its name was changed to Ho Chi Minh City in honor of Ho Chi Minh, the former president of North Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh City is a place in contrast with a mix of the modern and the colonial past, five star hotels and backpacker guesthouses, fine dining restaurants and food stalls on wheels, luxury boutiques and crammed local markets. The central downtown are is in District 1 where you can find the greatest variety of lodgings. First-time visitors are recommended to stay here as it is close to many museums, historical sites and good restaurants.

Although Saigon lacks the architectural excellence of Hanoi, there are numerous worthwhile sites such as the Notre Dame Cathedral, Reunification Palace and the War Remnants Museum. Visitors can take a leisurely tour in a cyclo to discover the city. The markets are bursting with an incredible range of goods. Tourists can find good deals on native handicrafts and custom-tailored clothing. Visitors will find an exciting trip to see the hustle and bustle of Vietnamese life in this vibrant and alluring city. HO CHI MINH CITY (HCMC for short), still known as Saigon to its seven million or so inhabitants, is Vietnam’s centre of commerce and the country’s biggest city by far, though not its administrative capital – an honour that rests with Hanoi. Fuelled by the sweeping economic changes wrought by doi moi in 1986, this effervescent city, perched on the west bank of the Saigon River, is in the throes of a programme of re-invention shaking it to its French-built foundations. Years of rubbing shoulders with the consumer-oriented Americans made the Saigonese wise to how to coin a profit. Now they are pressing old, near-forgotten skills back into service, as the market economy shifts into gear again, challenging Singapore, Bangkok and the other traditional Southeast Asian powerhouses.

All the accoutrements of economic revival – fine restaurants, flash hotels, glitzy bars and clubs, and shops selling imported luxury goods – are here, adding a glossy veneer to the city’s hotch-potch landscape of French stones of empire, venerable pagodas and austere, Soviet-style housing blocks. The city’s architecture has been termed “tropical Baroque” – an apt description of the once-grand but now weather-beaten buildings scattered through the city. Sadly, Ho Chi Minh City is still full to bursting with people for whom economic progress has not yet translated into food, housing and jobs. Street children range through tourist enclaves hawking books, postcards, lottery tickets and cigarette lighters; limbless mendicants haul themselves about on crude trolleys; and watchful pickpockets prowl Dong Khoi on the lookout for unguarded wallets. Indeed, begging is now of such epidemic proportions in Ho Chi Minh City that tourists must quickly come to accept it as a hassle that goes with the territory. In addition, the arrival, en masse, of wealthy Westerners has lured many women into prostitution, for which the go-go bars of Dong Khoi became famous during the American War.

Visitor Attractions in Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Municipal Theatre, Ho Chi Minh City, Suoi Tien Amusement Park

Fodor's Vietnam, 3rd Edition, The Guide for All Budgets, Where to Stay, Eat, and Explore on and Off the Beaten Path

Frommer's Vietnam, Including Angkor Wat

Vietnam

Tourism in Southeast Asia, challenges and new directions