Ho Chi Minh City

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), (Prey Nokor) Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh (Thành phố Sài Gòn)

—  Municipality

(Thành phố trực thuộc trung ương)  — Top: Ho Chi Minh City skyline; Ho Chi Minh City Hall Center: Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica; Saigon Port; Bitexco Financial Tower Bottom: Bến Thành Market; Municipal Theatre Nickname(s): Paris of the Orient, Pearl of the Far East Location in Vietnam and Southern Vietnam Coordinates: 10°46′10″N 106°40′55″E / 10.76944°N 106.68194°E / 10.76944; 106.68194 Country  Vietnam Founded 1698 Renamed 1976 Demonym Saigonese Government  • Party Secretary Lê Thanh Hải  • People's Committee Chairman: Lê Hoàng Quân  • People's Council Chairwoman: Nguyễn Thị Quyết Tâm Area  • Total 809.23 sq mi (2,095 km2) Elevation 63 ft (19 m) Population (2011)  • Total 7,521,138  • Density 9,294/sq mi (3,590/km2) Area code(s) +84 (8) Website Official website

Ho Chi Minh City (Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh;  listen), formerly named Saigon (Sài Gòn;  listen), is the largest city in Vietnam.

Under the name Saigon, it was the capital of the French colony of Cochin-china and later of the independent republic of South Vietnam from 1955–75. South Vietnam, as an anti-communist, capitalist republic, fought against the communist North Vietnamese and Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, with aid from the United States and countries including Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. Saigon fell when it was captured by the communists on 30 April 1975, ending the war with a Communist victory. Vietnam was then turned into a communist state with the South overtaken. On 2 July 1976, Saigon merged with the surrounding Gia Định Province and was officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City after Hồ Chí Minh (although the name Sài Gòn is still commonly used).

The metropolitan area, which consists of the Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area, Thủ Dầu Một, Dĩ An, Biên Hòa and surrounding towns, is populated by more than 9,000,000 people, making it the most populous metropolitan area in Vietnam. The city's population is expected to grow to 13.9 million in 2025.

The Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area, a metropolitan area covering most parts of Đông Nam Bộ plus Tiền Giang and Long An provinces under planning, will have an area of 30,000 square kilometers with a population of 20 million inhabitants by 2020. According to the Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Economist Intelligence Unit and ECA International, Ho Chi Minh City is ranked 132 on the list of world's most expensive cities for expatriate employees.

Name

Main article: Names of Ho Chi Minh City Saigon Railway Station retains the traditional name used informally since the 1620s.

Ho Chi Minh City has gone by several different names during its history, reflecting settlement by different ethnic, cultural and political groups. In the 1690s, Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, a Vietnamese noble, was sent by the Nguyễn rulers of Huế to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in the Mekong Delta and its surroundings. Control of the city and the area passed to the Vietnamese, who gave the city the official name of Gia Định (嘉定). This name remained until the time of French conquest in the 1860s, when the occupying force adopted the name Saigon for the city, a westernized form of the traditional name, although the city was still indicated as 嘉 定 on Chinese maps until at least 1891. Immediately after the communist takeover of South Vietnam in 1975, a provisional government renamed the city after Hồ Chí Minh, the late North Vietnamese leader. Even today, however, the informal name of Sài Gòn remains in daily speech both domestically and internationally, especially among the Vietnamese diaspora. In particular, Sài Gòn is still commonly used to refer to District 1.

Etymology Sài Gòn may refer to the kapok (bông gòn) trees that are common around the city. Sài Gòn

An etymology of Sài Gòn is that Sài is a Sino-Vietnamese word (Hán tự: 柴) meaning "firewood, lops, twigs; palisade", while Gòn is another Sino-Vietnamese word (Hán tự: 棍) meaning "stick, pole, bole", and whose meaning evolved into "cotton" in Vietnamese (bông gòn, literally "cotton stick", i.e., "cotton plant", then shortened to gòn). This name may refer to the many kapok plants that the Khmer people had planted around Prey Nokor, and which can still be seen at Cây Mai temple and surrounding areas. It may also refer to the dense and tall forest that once existed around the city, a forest to which the Khmer name, Prey Nokor, already referred.

Other proposed etymologies draw parallels from Tai-Ngon (堤岸), the Cantonese name of Cholon, which means "embankment" (French: quais), and Vietnamese Sai Côn, a translation of the Khmer Prey Nokor (Khmer: ព្រៃនគរ). Prey means forest or jungle, and nokor is a Khmer word of Sanskrit origin meaning city or kingdom, and related to the English word 'Nation' — thus, "forest city" or "forest kingdom".

Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh

The current official name, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, abbreviated Tp. HCM, is translated as Ho Chi Minh City, abbreviated HCMC, and in French as Hô Chi Minh Ville (the circumflex is sometimes omitted), abbreviated HCMV. The name commemorates Hồ Chí Minh, the pre-eminent North Vietnamese leader. This name, though not his given name, was one he favored throughout his later years. It combines a common Vietnamese surname (Hồ, 胡) with a given name meaning "enlightened will" (from Sino-Vietnamese 志明; Chí meaning 'will' (or spirit), and Minh meaning 'light'), in essence, meaning "bringer of light".

History

Location of the hexagonal Gia Dinh Citadel (r) and Cholon area (tilted square, left) in 1815. Today this forms the area of Ho Chi Minh City. Early history

Ho Chi Minh City began as a small fishing village known as Prey Nokor. The area that the city now occupies was originally swampland, and was inhabited by Khmer people for centuries before the arrival of the Vietnamese. In Khmer folklore southern Vietnam was given to the Vietnamese government as a dowry for the marriage of a Vietnamese princess to a Khmer prince in order to stop constant invasions and pillaging of Khmer villages.

Khmer territory

Beginning in the early 17th century, colonization of the area by Vietnamese settlers gradually isolated the Khmer of the Mekong Delta from their brethren in Cambodia proper and resulted in their becoming a minority in the delta. In 1623, King Chey Chettha II of Cambodia (1618–1628) allowed Vietnamese refugees fleeing the Trịnh–Nguyễn civil war in Vietnam to settle in the area of Prey Nokor and to set up a custom house there. Increasing waves of Vietnamese settlers, which the Cambodian kingdom could not impede because it was weakened by war with Thailand, slowly Vietnamized the area. In time, Prey Nokor became known as Saigon. Prey Nokor was the most important commercial seaport to the Khmers. The loss of the city prevented the Cambodians access to the Indochine. Subsequently, the Khmers' access to the sea was now limited to the Gulf of Thailand.

Nguyễn Dynasty rule A drawing of the French capture of Saigon in 1859

In 1698, Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, a Vietnamese noble, was sent by the Nguyễn rulers of Huế by sea to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in the area, thus detaching the area from Cambodia, which was not strong enough to intervene. He is often credited with the expansion of Saigon into a significant settlement. A large Vauban citadel called Gia Định was built, which was later destroyed by the French following the Battle of Kỳ Hòa (see Citadel of Saigon).

Colonial French era A busy street in Saigon (1966)

Conquered by France in 1859, the city was influenced by the French during their colonial occupation of Vietnam, and a number of classical Western-style buildings and French villas in the city reflect this. Saigon had, in 1929, a population of 123,890, including 12,100 French.

Capital of South Vietnam

The Vietnamese people had proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. The US decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony.

Former Emperor Bảo Đại made Saigon the capital of the State of Vietnam in 1949 with himself as head of state. After the Việt Minh gained control of North Vietnam in 1954, it became common to refer to the Saigon government as "South Vietnam." The government was renamed the Republic of Vietnam when Bảo Đại was deposed by his Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm in 1955 in a fraudulent referendum. Saigon and Cholon, an adjacent city with many Sino-Vietnamese residents, were combined into an administrative unit known as the Đô Thành Sài Gòn (Capital City Saigon).

Post-Vietnam War and today

At the conclusion of the Vietnam War on 30 April 1975, the city came under the control of the Vietnamese People's Army. Among Vietnamese diaspora communities and particularly the U.S. (which had fought the communists), this event is commonly called the "fall of Saigon," while the communist Socialist Republic of Vietnam refers to it as the "Liberation of Saigon." In 1976, upon the establishment of the unified communist Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the city of Saigon (including Cholon), the province of Gia Ðịnh and two suburban districts of two other nearby provinces were combined to create Ho Chi Minh City in honor of the late Communist leader Hồ Chí Minh. The former name Saigon is still widely used by many Vietnamese, especially in informal contexts. Generally, the term Saigon refers only to the urban districts of Ho Chi Minh City.

Geography

Binh Quoi in the Bình Thạnh District

Ho Chi Minh City is located in the southeastern region of Vietnam, 1,760 km (1,090 mi) south of Hanoi. The average elevation is 19 metres (62 ft) above sea level. It borders Tây Ninh and Bình Dương provinces to the north, Đồng Nai and Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu provinces to the east, Long An Province to the west and the Indochine to the south with a coast 15 km long. The city covers an area of 2,095 km2 (809 sq mi) (0.63% of the surface of Vietnam), extending up to Củ Chi (12 mi (19 km) from the Cambodian border) and down to Cần Giờ on the Bien Dong coast. The distance from the northernmost point (Phu My Hung Commune, Củ Chi District) to the southernmost one (Long Hòa Commune, Cần Giờ District) is 102 kilometers (63 mi), and from the easternmost point (Long Binh Ward, District Nine) to the westernmost one (Bình Chánh Commune, Bình Chánh District) is 47 kilometers (29 mi).

Climate

The city has a tropical climate, specifically a tropical wet and dry climate, with an average humidity of 75%. The year is divided into two distinct seasons. The rainy season, with an average rainfall of about 1,800 millimetres (71 in) annually (about 150 rainy days per year), usually begins in May and ends in late November . The dry season lasts from December to April. The average temperature is 28 °C (82 °F), the highest temperature sometimes reaches 39 °C (102 °F) around noon in late April, while the lowest may fall below 16 °C (61 °F) in the early mornings of late December into early January.

Climate data for Ho Chi Minh City Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °C (°F) 38 (100) 40 (104) 38 (100) 38 (100) 39 (102) 38 (100) 41 (106) 37 (99) 38 (100) 38 (100) 37 (99) 37 (99) 41 (106) Average high °C (°F) 31.6 (88.9) 32.9 (91.2) 33.9 (93) 34.6 (94.3) 34.0 (93.2) 32.4 (90.3) 32.0 (89.6) 31.8 (89.2) 31.3 (88.3) 31.2 (88.2) 31.0 (87.8) 30.8 (87.4) 32.3 (90.1) Daily mean °C (°F) 26.4 (79.5) 27.7 (81.9) 29.2 (84.6) 30.2 (86.4) 29.6 (85.3) 28.5 (83.3) 28.2 (82.8) 28.1 (82.6) 27.9 (82.2) 27.6 (81.7) 26.9 (80.4) 26.1 (79) 28.0 (82.4) Average low °C (°F) 21.1 (70) 22.5 (72.5) 24.4 (75.9) 25.8 (78.4) 25.2 (77.4) 24.6 (76.3) 24.3 (75.7) 24.3 (75.7) 24.4 (75.9) 23.9 (75) 22.8 (73) 21.4 (70.5) 23.7 (74.7) Record low °C (°F) 13 (55) 17 (63) 16 (61) 17 (63) 16 (61) 21 (70) 17 (63) 21 (70) 20 (68) 20 (68) 17 (63) 15 (59) 13 (55) Rainfall mm (inches) 13.8 (0.543) 4.1 (0.161) 10.5 (0.413) 50.4 (1.984) 218.4 (8.598) 311.7 (12.272) 293.7 (11.563) 269.8 (10.622) 327.1 (12.878) 266.7 (10.5) 116.5 (4.587) 48.3 (1.902) 1,931 (76.023) Avg. rainy days 2.4 1.0 1.9 5.4 17.8 19.0 22.9 22.4 23.1 20.9 12.1 6.7 155.6  % humidity 69 68 68 70 76 80 80 81 82 83 78 73 75.7 Mean monthly sunshine hours 244.9 248.6 272.8 231.0 195.3 171.0 179.8 173.6 162.0 182.9 201.0 223.2 2,486.1 Source #1: World Meteorological Organization (UN) Weatherbase (record highs, lows, and humidity ) Source #2: (sunshine hours only)

Political and administrative system

Ho Chi Minh City Hall at night

Saigon is a municipality at the same level as Vietnam's provinces. The city has been divided into twenty-four administrative divisions since December 2003. Five of these {Area: 1,601 km2} are designated as rural (huyện). The rural districts are Nhà Bè, Cần Giờ, Hóc Môn, Củ Chi, and Bình Chánh. A rural district consists of communes (Xã) and townships (Thị trấn). The remaining districts {Area: 494 km2} are designated urban or suburban (quận). This includes districts one to twelve, as well as Tân Bình, Bình Thạnh, Phú Nhuận, Thủ Đức, Bình Tân, Tân Phú and Gò Vấp. Each district is sub-divided into wards ("Phường"). Since December 2006, the city has had 259 wards, 58 communes and 5 townships (see List of HCMC administrative units below).

People's Committee

The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee is a 13-member executive council for the city. The current chairman is Lê Hoàng Quân. There are several vice chairmen and chairwomen on the committee with responsibility for various city departments. The legislative branch of the city government is called the People's Council and consists of 95 deputies. Both the committee and the council are subordinate to the city's Communist Party, currently led by Party Secretary Lê Thanh Hải. The chairman of the People's Committee is the No. 2 position in the city government while chairman of the People's Council is No. 3.

List of HCMC Administrative Units v t e Name of district (Dec. 2003) Sub-division units (Dec. 2003) Area (km2) (Dec. 2006) Population as of Census October 1, 2004 Population as of Census April 1, 2009 Population 2010 Population 2011 Inner Districts: District 1 10 wards 7.73 198,032 180,225 187,435 185,715 District 2 11 wards 49.74 125,136 147,490 140,621 136,497 District 3 14 wards 4.92 201,122 190,553 188,945 188,898 District 4 15 wards 4.18 180,548 180,980 183,261 183,043 District 5 15 wards 4.27 170,367 171,452 174,154 175,217 District 6 14 wards 7.19 241,379 249,329 253,474 251,902 District 7 10 wards 35.69 159,490 244,276 274,828 265,997 District 8 16 wards 19.18 360,722 408,772 418,961 421,547 District 9 13 wards 114 202,948 256,257 263,486 269,068 District 10 15 wards 5.72 235,231 230,345 232,450 234,188 District 11 16 wards 5.14 224,785 226,854 232,536 234,293 District 12 11 wards 52.78 290.129 405,360 427,083 451,737 Go Vap District 16 wards 19.74 452,083 522,690 548,145 561,068 Tan Binh District 15 wards 22.38 397,569 421,724 430,436 430,350 Tan Phu District 11 wards 16.06 366,399 398,102 407,924 419,227 Binh Thanh District 20 wards 20.76 423,896 457,362 470,054 479,733 Phu Nhuan District 15 wards 4.88 175,293 174,535 175,175 175,631 Thu Duc District 12 wards 47.76 336,571 442,177 455,899 474,547 Binh Tan District 10 wards 51.89 398,712 572,132 595,335 611,170 Total Inner Districts 259 wards 494.01 5,140,412 5,880,615 6,060,202 6,149,817 Suburban Districts: Cu Chi District 20 communes, 1 township 434.5 288,279 343,155 355,822 362,454 Hoc Mon District 11 communes, 1 township 109.18 245,381 349,065 358,640 363,171 Binh Chanh District 15 communes, 1 township 252.69 304,168 420,109 447,291 465,248 Nha Be District 6 communes, 1 township 100.41 72,740 101,074 103,793 109,949 Can Gio District 6 communes, 1 township 704.22 66,272 68,846 70,697 70,499 Total Suburban Districts 58 communes, 5 townships 1,601 976,839 1,282,249 1,336,244 1,371,321 Whole City 259 wards, 58 communes, 5 townships 2,095.01 6,117,251 7,162,864 7,396,446 7,521,138

Demographics

Historical population Pop. Year population 1995 4,640,400 1996 4,747,900 1997 4,852,300 1998 4,957,300 1999 5,073,100 2000 5,274,900 2001 5,454,000 2002 5,619,400 2003 5,809,100 2004 6,007,600 2005 6,230,900 2006 6,483,100 2007 6,725,300 2008 6,946,100 2009 7,196,100 2010 7,378,000 2011 7,521,100 Sources: Tuệ Thành meeting house in Chinatown, Ho Chi Minh City, District 5

The population of Ho Chi Minh City, as of the 1 October 2004 Census, was 6,117,251 (of which 19 inner districts had 5,140,412 residents and 5 suburban districts had 976,839 inhabitants). In mid-2007, the city's population was 6,650,942 – with the 19 inner districts home to 5,564,975 residents and the five suburban districts containing 1,085,967 inhabitants. The result of the 2009 Census shows that the city's population was 7,162,864 people, about 8.34% of the total population of Vietnam, making it the highest population-concentrated city in the country. As of the end of 2012, the total population of the city was 7,750,900 people, an increase of 3.1% from 2011. As an administrative unit, its population is also the largest at the provincial level. The majority of the population are ethnic Vietnamese (Kinh) at about 93.52%. Ho Chi Minh City's largest minority ethnic group are the Chinese (Hoa) with 5.78%. Cholon – in District 5 and parts of Districts 6, 10 and 11 – is home to the largest Chinese community in Vietnam. Other ethnic minorities, include Khmer 0.34%, Cham 0.1%.

The inhabitants of Ho Chi Minh City are usually known as "Saigonese" in English, "Saigonnais" in French and "dân Sài Gòn" in Vietnamese. The Hòa, in addition, speak Cantonese, Teochew (Chaozhou), Hokkien, Hainanese and Hakka dialects of Chinese, with only a few speaking Mandarin Chinese. A varying degree of English is spoken especially in the tourism and commerce sectors where dealing with foreign nationals is a necessity, so English has become a de facto second language for some Saigonese.

According to some researchers the religious makeup of Ho Chi Minh City is as follows: Buddhism (all sects and/or including Taoism, Confucianism) 80%, Roman Catholic 11%, other groups (ism, Hòa Hảo, Cao Đài, Islam, Hinduism, Bahá'í Faith) 2%, and no religion/unknown 7%..