Exploring Ho Chi Minh City’s heritage

Ho Chi Minh City is recognized as Vietnam's center of commerce and the country's biggest city. Aside from its economic growth, the city is now known as one of the most well-known visited places in Vietnam.

The entire trappings of economic success are probably seen in the city, including the restaurants, hotels, bars and clubs, and shops selling imported luxury goods. The landscape of French stones of empire, venerable pagodas and austere, as well as Soviet-style housing blocks also add up to the city's popularity.

Moreover, to show the culture and history of Ho Chi Minh, a historian and anthropologist from the United Kingdom has authored a few guidebooks on Ho Chi Minh City and even  debut for tourists. Tim Doling has recently started offering guided tours around downtown areas and Cho Lon in District 5. Doling's tours highlight visiting around the country's largest economic hub. The tours are also represented through his guidebook called "Exploring Ho Chi Minh City", as mentioned in Tuoitre News.

On the other hand, aside from the history of the place, Ho Chi Minh also offers its visitors a taste of an activity- filled travel with its different tourist attractions. One of these sites is the Ho Chi Minh City Museum. According to Lonely Planet, HCMC's City Museum is a building which tells the story of the city through archaeological artifacts, ceramics, old city maps and displays on the marriage traditions of city's different ethnicities.

One of the emphasis of the museum is located in the gardens. The pieces of military hardware, including the American-built F-5E jet used by a renegade South Vietnamese pilot to bomb the Presidential Palace make the museum a magnet for guests.

Another attraction which is constructed by Ngo Dinh Diem is the Independence Palace. It demonstrates the country's strength, but it was pulled down after an attempt to assassinate Dinh Diem. The replacement building was later renamed the Reunification Palace after the fall of Saigon in the 1970s. The rosewood-clad meeting rooms and musty library  are much visited by tourists. It is known as the most fascinating relic resides in the garden.

To take a glimpse at Vietnamese pagodas, many tourists visit the Jade Emperor Pagoda, which is spiritual yet awe-inspiring in scale and ambition. It is a Taoist pagoda created by the Cantonese Chinese community during the years 1892 to 1909. The Turtle sanctuary in the middle of Saigon  is known by the names of Pagoda Ngoc Hoang and also as Tu Hai Phuoc Pagoda, as claimed by Vietnamitas En Madrid.

Dong Khoi, another tourist spot, is a stretch of shops and bars. It  extends from Notre Dame Cathedral to the Saigon River. Many locals and guests visit Dong Khoi for its stories from the road has played a part in Ho Chi Minh's modern history, from the go-go bars that catered for young American GIs back in the 1950s to its 1970s descent into disrepair after the fall of Saigon. 

Today, Ho Chi Minh City is still recognized for its character and history. The city also takes visitors to colonial and cultural facades, which serve as magnets to its visitors.