Chinatown Ho Chi Minh City is a vibrant quarter of Saigon, a shopping center, food courses and unique temples of the Chinese community in Ho Chi Minh City. If you are wondering where to go for an exciting day, come to Chinatown in Ho Chi Minh city to see what’s amazingly inside.

Chinatown also known as Saigon Cho Lon, located on the west bank of Saigon River, Cho Lon (Big Market) consists of the western half of District 5 as well as several adjoining neighborhoods in District 11. At the center of Cho Lon stands Binh Tay Market as the most important commercial one there. For decades, it has been long inhabited by Chinese people, called Chinatown. Cho Lon has become an enormous trading market and an appealing destination for most of the tourists once coming to Ho Chi Minh City.

Coming Chinatown, you would feel as if you are lost in a paradise of food and beverage and attractive places. Chinatown is full of authentic local restaurants as well as cheap street hawkers that you can hardly find somewhere around Vietnam. As long as you see a lot of roasted duck and pork hanging in front of the local eateries, you will know that you have arrived in the right place. Especially, the noodles served in this district have more choices of Chinese style than the usual Vietnamese pho rice noodles while unusual herbs or exotic foods such as dried seahorse and thousand year old eggs (aka salted duck eggs) can be spotted here and there.

Since the Chinatown is where the Chinese community lives together speaking their own mother tongues, their tradition together with culture has been kept till today through the architecture of many religious building. Temples in this area include Thien Hau Temple on Nguyen Trai Street and Quan Am Temple on Lao Tu Street. Both feature interesting Chinese-Buddhist style architecture and interiors with pagodas, courtyards, altars and paintings. Besides, Chinatown is home to the Cho Lon Mosque on Nguyen Trai Street and Cha Tam, a small Catholic cathedral on Duong Hoc Lac Street. If you are keen on those antique buildings, you can choose to visit all.

Though Cho Lon is not famous for the variety of goods compared to other big markets in Ho Chi Minh City, it is known as a wholesale market as with the unique and qualified products that you can hardly deny. Popular items range from Vietnamese silk to lacquerware and hand-embroidered clothes to skillfully woven textiles. If you love shopping, you should visit it once.

To take a trip around Chinatown, walking is the best way to discover how awesome the Chinese community living here is. What’s more, you can also go by cyclo riding around Cho Lon and enjoy an interesting day out with camera on your hand and joy on your face.