VietNamNet Bridge – Strolling around Saigon can be a fascinating experience with the hurry of pedestrians and the bustle of heavy traffic. Saigon is bustling, hustling and dusty, even smoky. Saigon has no the ancientness of thousand-year-old Athens City or the magnificence of Paris. Saigon is young, small, but entices tourists thanks to its distinctions in culture, history, food and people.

Towering buildings, luxury hotels and trade centers interlace with old architectural works to dress Saigon up with the freshness of a new era. One glance at a line of buildings in Saigon offers visitors many genres of décor, from French colonial designs with meticulous decorations and onion-shaped Indian vaults to three-door Chinese temple gates. And Saigon’s streets capture romance under the shade of seasoned trees.

“Saigon is too weird, amidst the center are towering green trees, making the city poetic,” said a tourist from the Netherlands.

Saigon is also made interesting by its small corner markets which are always busy in a jubilant ambiance of trading. Some trading streets have existed for a long time, such as a 200-year-old trading street in Cho Lon (China Town) in District 5 and a rice selling street called Tran Chanh Chieu that was born in 1750 in the Chinese community. 

Those interested in antiques can roam Le Cong Kieu Street in District 1. This small street holds about 40 shops selling antique lamps in thousands of shapes and sizes, ceramics, chairs, tables and clocks. At the end of the street are paintings, wood works and parallel sentences. Coming here, tourists feel they are lost in an antique museum.

Colorful flowers and fruits abound on Le Thanh Ton Street next to Ben Thanh Market. There, tourists can purchase all kinds of Vietnamese fruit and multicolored flowers.

If tourists want to wander colorful streets, Hai Thuong Lan Ong and Trang Tu in District 5 are recommended.

Coming here, tourists can learn more about the daily life and customs of Chinese people and can satisfy their eyes with cute ornaments, especially near Christmas. Luong Nhu Hoc in this district is dazzling with red and yellow dragon costumes, bonnets and gowns for royal and traditional drama performances.

Exploring Saigon on foot, by bicycle or by cyclo to take a taste of Saigon life gives a sense that Saigon is also poetic, charming and gentle, not only bustling and hustling as standard complaints go.

VietNamNet/SGT