The Making of Saigon from the Nguyen Lords to 1954 © by Dr Vu Hong Lien British Academy and ECAF fellow 2013 London - 2013 O ne astonishing fact about Vietnam that maritime travellers don’t realise until they arrive in Saigon, today’s Ho Chi Minh city, is that their ships could easily travel up the Saigon river to dock at the city centre, whatever the size The ease of travelling inland from the main EastWest Maritime Route, linking China with India and further west via the South China Sea, has enticed thousands upon thousands of mariners to make this journey over the centuries; their journeys eventually became the reason for the birth of the city itself in the 17th century It would be fair to say: without the Saigon river, there would be no Saigon, ‘without Saigon, there would be no modern Vietnam, đổi and integrated as we see it today.’1 As the most important commercial hub of Vietnam, Saigon has a humble origin as a frontier post where people from a diverse background came to make their fortune and/or to escape their former lives, for whatever reason The city of Saigon as we know it today took shape over a long period of nearly 400 years, and went through several stages of development under different masters, from Khmer kings to the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam, the French colonial power, and then Vietnam again The first time the territory was mentioned in Vietnamese documents was in 1623 when it was called Prei Nokor of Zhenla-the old name of Cambodia This date was the occasion when the then king of Cambodia Chey Chetta II agreed to let the Việt set up two custom-posts at this location and an adjacent site called Kas Krôbey (today’s Bến Nghé of District 1)2 The names of these two locations were later changed around during the French occupation, what was called Saigon then became today’s Chinatown Chợ Lớn, and Bến Nghé became today’s Saigon Nguyen Dinh Dau, ‘Người Sài-gịn, có hay khơng?’, interview by Pham Cuong of VietNamNet (Feb-2008), http://vietnamnet.vn accessed August 2013 ‘Khơng có Sài Gịn khơng có nước Việt Nam đổi hội nhập nay.’ The area was called Ben Nghe in Vietnamese because it was where many buffaloes came to bathe, the younger ones were called nghe H istorically, the site of today’s Saigon was a wild and muddy area but not unhabitable as observed by the Nguyễn when they came to establish their custom-posts They would have found a Khmer settlement here, surrounded by stagnant ponds and dense jungle full of wildlife The Khmers have settled here for many years, if not centuries, living perhaps by the raw products they found in the area, such as wild animals, trees for building house and fuel and a certain kind of leaves called cần đóp for roofing The term ‘Prei’ in Khmer means forest or jungle They lived in stilt houses on dry high ground along a stretch of land running north up to the Đồng Nai river, about 20 kms away Archaeological activities during the 1940s uncovered a number of ancient Khmer artefacts, among them a clay pot made in a typical Khmer style, in this area Above ground, the presence of the Khmers was noted by two typical characteristics: pieces or slabs of a stone floor, built higher than its surrounding ground, presumed to be their temple floor, and at least one Banyan tree, a Khmer favourite that they like to grow at Buddhist places of worship This site has been identified as the Cây Mai pagoda, formerly known in Vietnamese history as the Cambodian Buddhist Temple (Chùa Cao Miên), locating at a point north of the Canal of Bến Nghé in today’s Phú Lâm/Chợ Lớn area (District 6) The Khmers continued to live at or nearby this location even after the Việt came to settle in large number Thanks to this connection, the Nguyễn later chose the area to be the exile capital of the Cambodian king of second rank, Ang Nan (Nặc Ông Nộn) in 1674 when Ang Nan was chased out of Cambodia during a royal dispute Ang Nan lived here for 15 years, and succeeded by his son In 1697 the son returned to the Khmer capital of Oudong to marry the current king’s daughter and eventually succeeded him as the new King of Cambodia Going further back in history, there had long existed at this site a highly civilised people belonging to a culture known as Sa Huỳnh, who were skilled in crafting metal objects, sophisticated jewelleries and knew how to cultivate rice, evidences of their existence have been found underground in many areas of Saigon today The Sa Huỳnh people existed from about 1000BCE to 200CE when their name vanished The next generation of inhabitants who replaced them, or, perhaps, absorbed their identity, was known as the Oc-Eo culture people, who, in turn, existed until the 7th century when their territory became a part of Zhenla Artefacts from both the Sa Huỳnh and the Oc-Eo people show signs that they traded with people from far away, such as the Roman Empire and China, but whether the site of Saigon was a port of the trading network at the time is still unknown Shipwrecks and their cargoes off the coast of Vietnam from the 9th to the 14th century showed that the early long-distance trade was conducted through the Gulf of Thailand, the ports of North Vietnam and the coast of Central Vietnam Whether there was no trade or no evidence of trade found in the area of Saigon during these centuries is still a question without answer at this stage From the 14th century onward, the boom of maritime trade with China under the Ming (13681644) and with merchants from Europe, the Middle-East, and other Southeast-Asian states provided ample opportunities for Cambodian, Burmese, Siamese and Vietnamese royals to get rich through trading monopolies, and commoners through their peripheral activities International traders came to sell their goods and to buy precious stones, metals, ceramics, silk and cotton, incense, ivory, lacquer, livestock such as elephants, and rhinoceros horn, brought to them from far inland via a system of rivers linking Siam, Cambodia and the Mekong Delta The royals profited further from extracting their custom duties Vietnam at the time enjoyed similar benefits from their ports further north, such as Vân Đồn, Hanoi, Danang and Hội An, while the Cham to their south profited from their own Vijaya, today’s Quy Nhơn city, until they were overwhelmed by the Nguyễn Bien Hoa Saigon Mekong Delta Sailing in Southeast-Asia, wherever the sailors found themselves, depends on the monsoon winds, the north-easterly wind for the southbound voyages between late December and early March and the south-easterly wind in July for the northbound traffics In between, the merchants needed somewhere to stay and a number of trading depots along the East-West Maritime Route were created as the result, Saigon was known to be one of these from the 17th century onward While resting, the merchants stocked up on local products which were brought to them from the hinterland mainly by boats A barge, or junk, could carry a larger load and travel more efficiently than oxcarts, or by porters, who would have to negotiate difficult and unpredictable roads Between Cambodia, Siam, Laos and today’s coast of Vietnam, the main waterway was the Mekong river, and its many tributaries such as the Tonle Sap Further north from the Mekong, the Đồng Nai river acted as the main artery between the inland and the coast Saigon, Prei Nokor and Kas Krôbei of the 17th century, was just under 100 kilometres from the coast and 18 kms from the point the Đồng Nai joined the Saigon river at today’s city of Biên Hòa before flowing out to sea The 17th century was a busy time for the Nguyễn Lords who held power in central Vietnam, and resided in Phú Xuân, today’s Huế Despite, or because, of their on-going war with their rival, the Trịnh, the power behind the court in today’s Hanoi, the Nguyễn began to expand southward to occupy more land, and to secure crucial supplies such as rice and materials for ship-building and weapon production Following the footsteps of the first Lord Nguyễn Hoàng and continuing under his successors, the Việt moved steadily and systematically south in a colonising movement later termed the Nam Tiến They first took over a large swathe of land from the kingdoms of Champa, the group of coastal polities occupying the lower part of central Vietnam By 1653, the Việt had moved far enough south to have a Khmer-Việt border that did not exist before By the end of the seventeenth century internal trouble had weakened the Khmer court to the point that the Vietnamese could expand further westward and southward, almost without resistance Later, under the pretext that Việt immigrants were mistreated in the Mekong Delta and at the locations they considered their own, or that they were asked to intervene on behalf of certain factions of the Cambodian court, the Nguyễn firmly occupied the land between the two main rivers Mekong and Đồng Nai, pushing even further south of the Mekong river, and consolidated their presence in Saigon Before Chey Chetta II’s era (r.1618-28), the capital of Cambodia was Lovek by the river Tonle Sap, halfway between Phnom Penh and the lower end of the Tonle Sap, another busy trading post of Southeast Asia Unfortunately, the wealth of Lovek caught the eye of the Thai in Siam and they promptly took the city in 1594, taking away many Khmer citizens as workers/slaves The sack of Lovek began a decline in the fortune of Cambodia and the geopolitical importance of its capital When the new king Chey Chetta II managed to gain partial independence from Siam, he chose to establish a new capital at Oudong, south of Lovek, in 1618, about 40 km from today’s Phnom Penh Chey Chetta II was well aware how precarious his position was, and sought to strengthen it by turning to the Nguyễn in Vietnam Relations between the Khmer royals and the Nguyễn have been excellent since the beginning of the 17th century It was tightened further by his marriage to Princess Ngọc Vạn, daughter of Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên in 1620 Three years later, through this connection, Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên asked the Cambodian king to allow him to establish two custom-houses at the river ports of Prei Nokor and Kas Krôbei, the reason was to collect taxes from Vietnamese merchants trading between Vietnam, Cambodia and Siam The traders tended to gather and rest in this area before travelling on in either direction Chey Chettha II agreed; the term of the agreement was years It would not be long before both locations prospered, became more populated and turned into thriving markets, the five-year term was not mentioned again, even though, according to Cambodian chronicle, it was once raised as an issue after the death of Chey Chetta II in 1627, but was quickly squashed by his Việt widow, the Nguyễn Princess Cambodia then degenerated into a civil war when princely factions allied with different neighbouring states to enhance their claims to the throne One of the factions brought in the Vietnamese Nguyễn who intervened by force and entrenched themselves in Cambodia The issue of Prei Nokor and Kas Krôbei fell sideways and the Việt took over the sites permanently Following the establishment of the Nguyễn custom-houses of Saigon and Bến Nghé in 1623, Việt immigrants began to settle in the region, starting from the north-eastern area of Mơ Xồi (today’s Bà Rịa, part way between Saigon and Vũng Tàu) and the town of Nơng Nại (today’s Biên Hịa) before moving into Saigon itself The two towns of Mơ Xồi and Nông Nại then acted as two ends of a territorial arch marking the northernmost boundary of settlements that became Phủ Gia Định by the end of the 17th century In the land below this arch, people from all walks of life and a variety of ethnicity lived together, although not always in harmony The most prominent among these were the Khmer, the Việt and, later, the Chinese who arrived in 1679 These Chinese belonged to one of the two groups of 3000 Ming loyalists who sailed south from China to ask the Nguyễn for asylum from the Qing and were told to settle in today’s Biên Hòa, but gradually expanded south to become neighbours of the traditional Khmers and the Việt The second Ming group was directed to settle in today’s Mỹ Tho on the Mekong Whatever their ethnic origins, the inhabitants made the most of the fertile land, the plentiful of fish in the many streams, creeks, canals and rivers of the area and used the waterways as their main means of transport Commercial activities grew as more immigrants came to settle and the area soon became a thriving zone of settlement From then until the time the south of Vietnam was taken by French forces in 1859, the various inhabitants of Gia Định lived side by side, and to a lesser extent, mixed up in three distinct enclaves: the Khmer in Phú Lâm, the Chinese in Chợ Lớn and the Việt in Bến Nghé The Chinese were particularly industrious at their first chosen site by the Đồng Nai river Here, they established a large port on a river island called Cù Lao Phố Before long, this island became a major depôt of goods from the Vietnamese highlands and Cambodia, earning it the name of Cảng Đại Phố (the great port of Phố), a busy market only second to Bến Nghé, nearer to the sea As the commercial activities grew, the population expanded, the inhabitants then enlarged their settlements in a haphazard way, turning them into sections of a bustling town until the Nguyễn decided to take firmer control under Lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu By 1693, the Nguyễn have taken the last Cham land of Panduranga and were in the middle of an uneasy truce with their rival, the Trịnh from the north It was a fortuitous time for them to pay more attention to the southern land With Panduranga added to the existing provinces, the new land under the Nguyễn’s control now stretched from today’s Bình Thuận to the Mekong Delta, a huge piece of land that was renamed Phủ Gia Định Nguyễn Phúc Chu then appointed a governor, the Grand Mandarin Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, to this Phủ Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh quickly established administrative units for the area, such as towns, districts and villages and then appealed to people from northern provinces to move in to settle The existing Chinese were grouped into their own villages and called the Minh Hương (Ming loyalists), a name still familiar to many Vietnamese today In this year, the Minh Hương were officially entered in the Việt population register Nông Nại/Biên Hòa became the district of Phước Long and Saigon the district of Tân Bình Each administrative unit was managed by a civil official, supported by a joint force of army and navy, and protected by security guards Under Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, the number of people in Phủ Gia Định was recorded as over 40,000 households, the region was listed as thousands of square kilometres For his governing seat, Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh chose the former Prei Nokor, Saigon, which was quickly developed into a site where products from both the mountains and the Mekong Delta gathered to find the best maritime traders from India, Japan, China and even further in both east-west directions The produce from the Mekong were transported north via a system of rivers and canals, and from the mountains by foot-porters along the upstream of the river Đồng Nai where it was full of rapids and cascades Further downstream, the goods were carried by boats as the water became calmer north of Biên Hòa For most of the 18th century, the market that became the city of Saigon continued to grow out of necessity Houses, official buildings and garrisons were constructed but roads were haphazardly built, ‘some were straight, others were crooked’, as the main means of transport was still by waterways Mid-18th century, however, was a busy time for commerce with rice from the Mekong Delta being the most sought after commodity As the war between the Nguyễn and the Trịnh intensified, the need for rice increased accordingly Many new canals were dug by hand during this period for the small natural rivers and creeks serving the area tended to silt up during the dry season, forcing merchants to cease all activities and wait until the water was high enough to travel again The delay during the dry season became intolerable to the Nguyễn authority They ordered an extensive clean-up of the existing canals and for new canals to be dug to facilitate the flow of water The first ones were dug in Saigon, which is today’s Chợ Lớn A major canal called Ruột Ngựa was created in 1772, so called because it was ‘as straight as a horse gut’ When completed, this canal played a crucial role in the flow of riverine traffic in and out of the then Saigon Other canals followed suit after Saigon became a refuge for the Nguyễn Lords two years later Some canals were dug by official orders, others by residents to answer to their particular needs such as the Phố Xếp in today’s Chợ Lớn Dug in 1778 by the Ming loyalists who emigrated to the area from their enclave in Biên Hòa after they were massacred by the Tây Sơn in 1773 The Chinese refugees resettled on the high ground here and lived by growing vegetables, the new canal Phố Xếp was much needed for their produce to reach the market at Bến Nghé, via the existing system of waterways linking the area with the ports The convenience of water travel in Saigon and Bến Nghé drew more people to settle along the river and canal banks, bringing with them a variety of skills, such as pottery making, boat-building, wood carving, jewellery making and carpentry etc Each group of artisans gathered in their own enclave, creating a rich tapestry of professional wards flourishing along the rivers and canals of Saigon, some of them, such as the potters were still in business until the beginning of the 20th century, when a French canal cleaning and filling campaign drove them out of business The growth of the handicraft industries, in turn, inspired yet more canals to be dug, each one carried the name of the product they were created for Along the canals and the rivers, there were several boatyards acting as ‘garages’ for boat repair and maintenance These yards were built on slightly higher ground, making them convenient for later land constructions, once the canals were filled up to become roads in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Back in the 18th century, canal construction was one of the most important activities of the Nguyễn for not only did they help to increase the production of foodstuffs, they played a crucial role in getting supplies in and out of Gia Định for the Nguyễn’s continuing war with the Tây Sơn Life under the Nguyễn at the time was a life depending on water and it brought with it a style of housing that still prevails in many areas of Saigon today, the half on-half off stilt houses In this style, half of the house would be on land while the other half would stick out over the water and supported by wooden pillars The owners’ boats could be tethered to the pillars and waste products would be dropped onto the water Next to this type of housing is the boathouse version, where the owners lived entirely on their boats, which also served as their main transport and their means of a livelihood, similar to the European gypsies and their caravans on land The boathouse lifestyle then gave its name to another familiar location of Saigon, Nhà Bè, the main trading centre of Gia Định under Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh Nhà Bè (barge house) was the point where three rivers Đồng Nai, Saigon and Nhà Bè converged, a few kilometres south of today’s central Saigon It first got its name when a businessman took the initiative to build a covered barge and equipped it with cooking facilities to cater to the many boat traders who moored in the area while waiting for the right tide to travel further or to return home As river boats were small by necessity, it was hard for the boat owners to cook comfortably on-board, the barge kitchen was most welcomed Later on, many more restaurant or food barges followed suit, turning the site into a busy market and gave the site its name that is still in use today, even though the market itself has long vanished in the late 18th century Up until 1775, Nhà Bè also housed a large depôt where products taken as taxes were stored up for the annual tribute to the court in Hanoi This depôt was abolished after the Nguyễn Lord Nguyễn Phúc Thuần came to establish his residence in Saigon Boat houses and traffic along one of the canals The Nguyễn, by the second half of the 18 th century, were under heavy pressure from both their traditional rival, the Trịnh, and a new one, the Tây Sơn from Bình Thuận Lord Nguyễn Phúc Thuần was defeated by the Tây Sơn at the beginning of 1775 Accompanied by his nephew, Lord Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, Nguyễn Phúc Thuần abandoned his capital Phú Xuân and escaped by ship to Phủ Gia Định while the Tây Sơn were in pursuit The Nguyễn Lord settled in Saigon but was soon defeated and on the move again In 1777, the Tây Sơn captured Gia Định and killed all the Nguyễn royals, including Lord Nguyễn Phúc Thuần Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, a young man of only 15, alone escaped the massacre to continue the war with the Tây Sơn To cope with the Tây Sơn’s advance, the Nguyễn built an earthen wall along the Saigon river The many rivers and canals of the area then became an important part of the Nguyễn’s military strategy from 1778 onward Many canals were blocked or ‘mined’ by submerged pointed stakes to stop Tây Sơn ships from entering into the area The war was a dire time described by Trịnh Hoài Đức as ‘there’s a shortage of everything, no supplies were coming into the markets, only simple foodstuffs were available, salt became a rare commodity, rice was even rarer, both commoners and officials were suffering ’ During the next two decades, Nguyễn Huệ of the Tây Sơn and the last Nguyễn Lord Nguyễn Ánh fought a running battle up and down the southern coast of Vietnam according to the monsoon winds The land of Gia Định and its strategic city of Saigon changed hands at least five times When the area belonged to the Nguyễn, Nguyễn Ánh established rules and governed it as his own territory When the Tây Sơn took over, they established their own rules and taxes Like it or hate it, other ethnic people living in and around Saigon were drafted into the war, such as the Khmer in the Nguyễn army and the Chinese who were drawn into both armies Apparently, they changed sides as new masters came and went, and as such, they suffered the same fate as their chosen side’s The Chinese in particular were severely punished in their enclave of Cù Lao Phố/Biên Hòa in 1773, when the Tây Sơn were the victors Their bustling port of Đại Phố was destroyed, houses, shops and depots were burned to the ground Those who escaped the carnage moved down to form a new Chinese enclave in today’s Chợ Lớn In January 1780, having won over in Gia Định, Nguyễn Ánh proclaimed himself king in Bến Nghé/Saigon but did not manage to settle in the city permanently as the Tây Sơn returned to dislodge him, forcing him to escape further south, to Hà Tiên, then Siam, and to the islands in the Gulf of Thailand In 1782, the Chinese in today’s Chợ Lớn were again punished under the Tây Sơn in one of the worst massacres in the history of South Vietnam, when over 10,000 Chinese were killed, their bodies littered the rivers and canals of the area The water was so badly polluted that for months, nobody dared touch any fish and other river products The massacre of the enterprising Chinese created a shortage of many commodities, the price of tea went up many folds in the following year, for example This time, though, the Chinese managed to regroup and recover enough to continue the development of their enclave in Chợ Lớn, gradually taking over more quarters and turned Chợ Lớn into their own Chinatown Built to the south-southwest of today’s Saigon, Chinatown Chợ Lớn took shape along the canal of Bến Nghé Along both sides of the canal they built stone steps and landing piers, shops and warehouses in bricks, some houses were reserved as hotels for Chinese merchants from far away when they came to trade The main commercial style of activities then, and now, was wholesale The main products were rice, fresh produce, fish and salt from the Mekong Delta but a huge number of other products was also brought here by foreign Chinese merchants The importance of the canal Bến Nghé to Lord Nguyễn Ánh in Saigon area prompted Emperor Minh Mạng to engrave its image onto the largest bronze urn, representing Emperor Gia Long, in 1836 when he created the nine bronze urns to be symbols of the Nguyễn in Huế 10 street by its common name of Đường Kinh Lấp (street of filled canal) for many decades after that When the entire canal was filled, the main retail market by its side called Bến Thành (Port by the Citadel) was moved to another location and later re-located to today’s Bến Thành or Saigon market Rue Charner along the Canal of Chợ Vải (Grand Canal) before 1887 Intersected with this street is today’s Lê Lợi street, formerly Boulevard Bonard, also a filled canal Today’s Hàm Nghi street is another filled canal, formerly known as the Canal of Crocodiles, where crocodiles were kept and sold as meat As time went by more canals were filled to become streets, more places of entertainment were created to cater for an increasing number of French settlers, and, to a lesser extent, immigrants of other nationalities, such as the Indian and Malaysian As a traditional port-city, wharfs were an important feature for Saigon The wharfs under French authority came in use immediately after the taking of Saigon in 1859 for both military and commercial services Ships from Europe and the region came to buy rice and other commodities regularly from 1860 onward French maritime companies began to build their own docking facilities along the river bank from 1861, the most active was the Messageries Imperiales4, who owned a number of sites, one of them was today’s Nhà Rồng (House of the Dragon) wharf, where large international cruise ships came to dock The ‘Dragon’ in the wharf’s name came from the emblem on the roof of this company’s headquarters The French City of Saigon Commercial Wharf came into service in 1864, equipped with piers and a stretch of warehouses In 1911, the port facilities were divided in two halves, one This company became Messageries Maritimes in 1899 22 for military and the other for commercial services The military part ran from the former Gia Long’s shipyard by the Thị Nghè Canal to the end of Rue Charner This stretch of port facilities later became known as Bạch Đằng wharf The commercial part was south of this, running as far as the Bến Nghé canal to become today’s Chương Dương wharf Each stretch covered about 600 metres of the riverbank and equipped with full docking facilities for a variety of ships Map of the City of Saigon – 1898 From the start, life in general has not been easy in this city for the settlers In 1865, there were only over 500 French people living in Saigon, this figure rose quickly as more and more companies came to establish their factories and more officials were sent to administer the new colony One of them was a mining engineer who was sent to Saigon in 1869 A Petiton lamented incessantly over his stay in Saigon, and claimed that he suffered so much here, probably, he said, because he hated the place Nevertheless, he gave a detailed picture of life during the first few years under French authority The complaint began from day one, when he arrived in Saigon and wondered if ‘there’s land in this place?’ for all he could see was marshland and water The next questions were ‘where is the city?’ ‘On which bank of the river is the city?’ Petiton asked seriously, he said Not even the sight of large buildings in 23 European style such as the Messageries Imperiales could placate him Later, the huge Cosmopolitan Hotel owned by a rice rich Hongkong Chinese from Cho-Lon, Wang-tai, seemed to leave a better impression, otherwise, in his opinion, there was nothing worth writing home about! Saigon at the time had a number of houses in Vietnamese style that Petiton called horrible ‘cainha’, uncomfortable, too small, too low, too hot on the head Entertainment was limited and bowling in the English style seemed to feature large among the expats There was no church, just a temporary place served as church for Europeans According to Petiton, it seemed three main establishments at the time were the garrison, the army hospital and the cemetery There were two Muslim temples and a Hindu one, none was significant The roads were large and made by packed earth in red colour, as such, they were in turn muddy or dusty according to dry or wet weather Roads were still primitive during Petiton’s time, indeed, but that soon changed From 187374, pavements were built along existing roads, lined with leafy trees Road surfaces were still covered with laterite or cobblestones until 1904, when they began to be covered with asphalt Boulevard de la Somme (today’s Hàm Nghi) During this first phase of development, the first Post Office for Saigon was established in 1859, a temporary structure in wood The first stamp was issued in 1863 The botanic park 24 was established soon after that, in 1864, at its present location It was used as a plant nursery at first to grow seedlings for the trees to be planted along the streets of Saigon but was soon expanded into a zoo The first governor’s office was built under Admiral Bonard, who imported his wooden structure from Singapore It was a modest two story building, adorned by a clock tower at the front A new and much larger structure was built in 1868-69, within a park and designed by a French architect, Georges l’Hermitte This palace later became the Presidential Palace under Ngơ Đình Diệm until it was damaged by bombs Later, a new modern building was built to replace it as the Presidential Palace This complex of building and park is now used as a venue for large exhibitions Palace of the Governor-General – Photo of 1955 The main Post Office as we know today was built in bricks, in 1886-91 by the architect Auguste Henri Vildieu and his assistant Alfred Foulhoux The metal under-roof support was designed by Gustave Eiffel of the Eiffel Tower fame Its typical French architecture is still a marvel among visitors today Inside, engraved in two high alcoves on either side of the entrance are two remarkable maps, one of Saigon showing all the canals and one of the telegraph network of the region at the beginning of the 20th century 25 One of the maps inside the Post Office of Saigon For a place of worship, earlier French settlers went to a temporary wooden church at St Joseph’s Seminary established by Bishop Dominique Lefèbvre in 1866 The main place of worship for Roman Catholics, the red brick Notre-Dame Cathedral, was built later, in 1876 It was designed by the architect J Bourard and selected after a design contest by the then Governor-General, Admiral Duperré Architect J Bourard also supervised the construction, using materials imported from France The red hue of the cathedral comes from the natural colour of the bricks imported from Marseilles The cathedral was adorned by 56 stained glass windows, today only of the originals are still intact The Cathedral was completed, without bell towers, in 1880 and was inaugurated by the first civilian governor, Charles Le Myre de Vilers The bell towers were added later This fine structure is still standing in its original place and remains the heart of Roman Catholic activities in Saigon today The Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Post Office, standing on one side of its ground, form two sides of a fine square to create an oasis of tranquillity at the end of Rue Catinat, today’s Đồng Khởi Another less known church, the Tân-Định Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was built almost at the same time to be the second largest church of the city The importance of this church lies in the fact that it housed the first publishing facility in Saigon, originally to publish religious literature Named Tân-Định Imprimerie de la Mission, it was later supported by a school called Sainte Enfance de Tân-Định run by the Sisters of Saint-Paul de Chartres 26 who taught orphans and disadvantaged children the printing trade One of the first dictionaries published here is the 916-page Dictionnaire annamite-franỗais (T v AnnamPha lang sa) published in 1877 Another notable structure, the Opera House was built in 1898-1900 exactly where it is today The cosy interior and stylist architecture was an instant hit, then and now The City Hall at the end of Rue Charner, at the centre, was built in 1909, another French style building that is still in use today During this phase of development, several schools were established, such as the Collège des Interprètes, later it was transformed into the Ecole Normale Des Institueurs Another school was created especially for the training of officials to administer the colony Collège des administrateurs stagiaires One of the most famous French scholars being involved with this school was ẫtienne Franỗois Aymonier, a former officer turned expert on Cham and Khmer cultures of the 19th and early 20th centuries His work is still considered the foundation of these two subjects Another famous name attached to both schools was a Vietnamese, Trương Vĩnh Ký, who was professor of French language at the school for interpreters (1866-1868) and professor of French studies for the expats at the school for administrators in 1874 The pace of development was so intense during the first decades of French authority that by 1884, according to Trương Vĩnh Ký, Saigon has become one of the most beautiful cities of the Far-East The City Hall, photo taken in 1955 For decades, while the development of Saigon was being carried out, the area between the City of Saigon and Chợ Lớn remained a marshland, where local residents of a diverse ethnic background, such as the Việt, Chinese, Cham, Khmer, Lao eked out a living by selling cheap products such as palm leaves for making water buckets, little oil lamps and general knickknacks They lived a difficult life in small thatched houses by stagnant ponds and ditches Later, when the old died off and the young abandoned the area, a new type of residents 27 moved in; international and local prostitutes and small-time gangsters The status quo remained until 1913 when there was a decision to fill in the marsh for more land of construction The new market, today’s Bến Thành, was one of the major structures to be built in this filled-in marshland The name Bến Thành was retained after the old market by the Chợ Vải canal At this new location, the market became a thriving centre where goods of all descriptions and fresh produce from the Mekong Delta were unloaded This market was soon followed by Tân Định and Bình Tây markets, built in 1928, for both wholesalers and retailers The Bình Tây was built over an old boat repair pier in Chợ Lớn by a Chinese merchant and is today a favourite among shoppers for its abundance of goods at reasonable prices Before the Bình Tây market was built, Chợ Lớn suffered a devastating fire in 1923 when houses, depots and foodstuffs went up in smoke in a large area along the main canal The fire drove a great number of inhabitants away, leaving the area empty for a while During this time, a local canal, Hàng Bàng, was filled to make a new road linking Chợ Lớn with the Mekong Delta Gradually, Chinese merchants returned and it would not be long before the area recovered and again prospered Bến-Thành Market Banking was one of the first industries to be established in Saigon Following the arrival of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1870, the Banque de L’Indochine was created in Paris in 1875 to handle the banking services of all Indochina and China itself It operated in Saigon but the money was still printed in Paris One side of the money was in French, the other side in Chinese characters 28 As the road building and canal filling programme progressed, more solid bridges were needed New bridges gradually replaced wooden or bamboo bridges over the many remaining canals of Saigon and Chợ Lớn, originally built for pedestrians The majority of bridges in Saigon today was built under the French authority, functional but not remarkable One of the first bridges was the Cầu Mống, a steel bridge built in 1893-94 across Bến Nghé Canal, at a location called Quai de Belgique at the time, Chương Dương wharf in today’s terms Cầu Mống Bridge at Quai de Belgique Photo taken in 1955 29 As a city once served by waterways, many canals remain today, along with their bridges In one district of Chợ Lớn, adjacent to the Bến Nghé canal, for example, there remain 20 canals and 25 bridges With road transport becoming more important in the 20th century, more larger bridges were built, one of Saigon best known bridges is the Y bridge, not because it is beautiful or technological advance, but by its Y shape, allowing vehicles to get into their preferred direction midway across Built in 1938-41 across the Bến Nghé and the Tẻ Canals, it was one of the latest bridges built by French authority in Saigon In contrast with the European lifestyle of the City of Saigon, Chợ Lớn continued to live almost as much as before, albeit, on a much larger scale as its commercial activities grew Without the export restrictions imposed under the Nguyễn, the Chinese in Chợ Lớn were free to expand their business, which, by the 1860s was mainly rice distribution For most of the French time in Saigon and Vietnam in general, rice was the top export and the main income of the new colony, estimated to be 68% of the total income by 1926 The rice came up from the Mekong Delta and also from Cambodia to be processed in both Saigon and Chợ Lớn, before being exported to the region, Europe and even America Rice exported from South Vietnam at the turn of the 19-20th centuries was ranked number in world export quantity but considered inferior to Thai and Burmese rice in quality The first rice mill was established in 1869 in Chợ Lớn By 1885, rice mills became a major feature along the Bến Nghé canal, the largest ones, such as the Rizerie vapeur and the Rizerie Saigonaise were owned by French companies such as Denis Frères The smaller ones belonged to the Chinese and the Việt This picture changed rapidly as the local Chinese were joined by their clan people coming from Hongkong, Singapore and southern China Their hold on the distribution of rice has always been tight and with new capital and manpower coming in, the Chinese soon became top rice merchants in Southern Vietnam, through their wholesale points in Chợ Lớn They even took over some French companies but still employed European engineers and mechanics By 1905, the top four rice mills in Chợ Lớn were owned by the Chinese By 1914, of 10 rice mills in Chợ Lớn, were owned by the Chinese By 1931, the number of rice mills went up dramatically to 75, of which, only were owned by French companies, the rest belonged to the Chinese The Nam Long and the Kiến Phong were the best known Chinese mills in the area The presence of the rice mills in Chợ Lớn created a serious health hazard for the area, as the husk was burned for fuel, its particles were released into the air and mixed with dense smoke from the machinery to pollute the entire area and became a killer of young and feeble people Even then, immigrants still arrived to settle, from India, Japan and Malaysia, working on peripheral types of jobs, such as changing money, selling fabrics, clothing and processed food, or handling some new types of public transport by road Even though the Chinese paid high taxes and focused on commerce, their hold on the commerce of Saigon-Chợ Lớn became intolerable for the Vietnamese and the French authority by the first decades of the 20th century The Việt began to comment critically on the Chinese monopoly of rice and their control of prices on other staple foods They staged a boycott of Chinese products but without much impact In 1923 the French authority attempted to wrestle the control of rice and maize distribution in Saigon ports from the Chinese by giving exclusive rights to a French company, Homberg-Candelier for 20 years The decision caused an uproar, not only among the Chinese but also within the Việt and the French communities who saw it as underhanded favouritism The protest against this decision became a political campaign against the French authority Criticism was openly voice by the 30 Vietnamese, backed by Chinese money and supported by a small number of sympathetic French From a protest against rice monopolies, the campaign was widened and turned into a forum for many Vietnamese to vent their anger against the French colonial authority This protest was considered as the emerging roots for the resistance in later years Alcohol and opium were two other major product in Saigon from 1860 onward Opium was first sold privately in opium dens under license but came under the government’s control when a manufacturing plant was established in Saigon, the Manufacture d’Opium de Saigon, in 1881 The opium business grew massively at the beginning of the 20th century when the five current opium agencies of Indochina were grouped into one monopoly under the Governor-General of Indochina Paul Doumer Official opium was still available in large quantity in Saigon even after the Convention of La Haye, stipulating an eradication of opium trafficking, was signed in January 1912 By the end of the 19th century, land transport became easier and more popular Different types of vehicles gradually appeared to answer to the needs of citizens in Saigon Chợ Lớn, apart from the traditional oxcart The cheapest for common people was the horse-drawn Thổ Mộ, so called because of its curve roof of woven reed and straw, similar to the hump of a grave (Mộ) The floor of this vehicle was covered by a straw mat for 8-10 passengers to sit next to each other anyhow, with both feet on-board, or, if it was too crowded for their feet to be in, some of the passengers would sit with their legs hanging out at the back Their belongings or their market products would be put on the roof, or tied on the sides The cart was drawn by a single small horse A Thổ-Mộ on display at the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City 31 For the French and better off passengers there were the glass coaches, also drawn by horse(s) but the passengers were enclosed in a cosy interior where they can look out through glass windows, hence its name xe kiếng in Vietnamese Horses’ speed was limited to a slow trot in the centre of the city The next type of vehicle was similar to the glass coach but open Horse drawn buses began to be used in 1882 between the City of Saigon and Chợ Lớn Even then, the number of vehicles were still very low at the beginning of the 20th century There were only less than 500 horse-drawn carts in the whole of the city Rickshaws pulled by humans were imported first from Hongkong in 1886-92 to cater to individuals but were not very popular at first There were just under 400 rickshaws in Saigon by the turn of the century Bicycles gradually entered the scene also at the turn of the century, a luxury item that only French colonists and very rich people could afford The first bicycles were imported in 1894 and by 1910 they became the means for postmen to deliver their mails The bicycle soon became a status symbol for Vietnamese in the 1920s and 30s To know how to ride was something to be proud of for both men and women, to own one was the symbol of a fashionable lifestyle It was truly the most coveted luxury item among young and upwardly mobile people during these decades The cyclo came very late, in the 1930s, and stayed the longest among all the early vehicles for public transport They are still in use today but only as show pieces for visitors to experience old Saigon To complement the array of road vehicles, in 1881, a tramway was built between Saigon and Chợ Lớn to accommodate a tram pulled by steam engines More stretches of tramways followed in 1896 and 97, linking other suburbs with Saigon Cars were introduced into Saigon at the beginning of the 20th century and was extremely exclusive, only existed in 1910, all owned by French officials Ten years later, the number of cars in Saigon went up to 100, their speed was limited to 12 km/h at first but later reduced to 10 km/h in the centre It wouldn’t be long before the motorised omnibus began to run in Saigon, and then from Saigon to outlying provinces and even Phompenh by 1930 Long distance railways using steam engines began in 1886 between Saigon and Mỹ Tho on the Mekong Stretches of other railways followed and gradually, the trans-Vietnam railway was completed in 1936, covering more than 2,000 kms, from Hanoi to Saigon, via the coastal towns and cities This rail system has been modernised several times and is still in use in Vietnam today The arrival of electricity in Saigon in 1893 changed the city dramatically The marvel of electricity was first observed at the headquarters of the Messageries Maritimes by the Saigon river, at Port Nhà Rồng The small number of electric bulbs running at low wattage was viewed with awe as the wonder of modernity by locals and settlers alike Electricity became a subject of debates within the French administration for many years, until the first test project was approved in 1889 The first test site for electric bulbs was the Opera house and part of the main Rue de Catinat It was a success and opened the way for the building of the first electricity plant at Chợ Quán in 1896, powered by steam engines Gradually, electrical street lights replaced the oil lamps and by the end of the century, the area lit by electrical bulbs was much wider, covering most of Saigon By 1909, the main electrical plant was granted license to provide electricity to private houses and businesses Many quarters now had electrical lights, even the old marshland around Bến Thành market was lit by electricity by 1929 The steam tram was changed to electric in 1912 with the Saigon-Chợ Lớn link being inaugurated in 1914 32 Air travel entered the colony in 1910 when the first airplane landed in Saigon A tiny airport, Tân Sơn Nhất, was built in 1930 for the fledgling civil air service and went into operation in 1935 The first civil air service company was formed three years later, in 1938, its first Saigon-Hanoi flight took place in the same year Air transport then became the fastest link between the two cities By then, it took only 24 hours by plane to travel between the two, whereas, for the same journey, it took two months by hammocks or palanquins carried by porters, or more than a month by ship to the port of Hải Phòng, and then on to Hanoi In 1931, Saigon and Chợ Lớn were grouped into a region headed by a regional Administration Committee, its chairman was appointed by the Governor-General Chợ Lớn area was further expanded south to include today’s Districts and By then, the foundation of today’s Saigon has completed When the First World War was over, the world entered a new era of peace and reconstruction that had wider implications for colonies like Vietnam Demands for raw materials such as rubber increased sharply Rubber plantations using low paid labourers became the dominant feature of colonial activities in Vietnam and elsewhere in Indochina Acreage used for rubber plantations increased threefold between 1917 and 1926 In the South, rubber output was increased tenfold in the years following the end of the war and rubber became another major product exported from Saigon The period between the two world-wars was a time of changes in other directions for Saigon The anti-colonial movement was intensified with the appearance of many active political parties in Saigon Several locations in Saigon were sabotaged during the 1930s and 40s Patriotic campaigns led by educated scholars such as Phan Chu Trinh and Phan Bội Châu were equally active culturally Retaliation followed each action, turning Saigon into a hotbed of anti-colonial and repressive activities Life, however, continued for many in Saigon When the Second World-War spread to the Pacific, the occupation of Vietnam by the Japanese impoverished the country on the whole and major cities like Saigon in particular It left millions of people facing starvation in 1944-45 when rice was confiscated and fields were turned into jute plantations When the war ended in August 1945 with the surrender of Japan, there was no immediate creditable authority in Saigon to replace them The strongest anticolonial party at the time, the Viet-Minh under the leadership of Hồ Chí Minh took over Emperor Bảo Đại soon abdicated in Huế, leaving the ruling of the country to the newly established revolutionary government A new government was quickly set up in Saigon, but did not function for long In September 1945, an allied contingent arrived to re-establish order and to restore power to the preJapanese authority, in this case, it was perceived as the French government On the 23rd of September 1945, French authority returned in Saigon, Vietnamese in both north and south Vietnam resumed their anti-colonial resistance Saigon once again witnessed many sabotage acts However, life continued almost normally for many in the city What followed for Saigon was triggered by events at a faraway location, Điện Biên Phủ, a remote northern valley by the Việt-Lao border The result of the fierce battles there brought far and wide implications for both the French authority and local residents Following the Geneva agreement of July 1954, France agreed to relinquish their hold on Vietnam and Indochina By the time the French left Vietnam and returned Saigon to the then government of the Republic of Vietnam, Saigon had long been renown as the Pearl of the Orient thanks to its 33 urban development, its French style architecture, and its thriving commerce While the Nguyễn left many canals and a basic foundation for Saigon, the French colonial period had contributed a considerable legacy in the shape of a modern infrastructure Saigon has managed to build on both, under different Vietnamese regimes, to become the thriving metropolis that we see today © Dr Vu Hong Lien, London, UK, 2013 34 Bibliography Antonini, Paul, L'Annam, Le Tonkin et l'intervention de la France en Extrême-Orient, (Paris, 1889) Bouchot, Jean, La naissance et les premières années de Saigon, ville franỗaise (Saigon, 1927) -, Documents pour servir l'histoire de Saigon 1859-1865 (Saigon, 1927) Bùi Vinh, Văn Hóa Tiền Sử Việt Nam [Pre-historic Culture of Vietnam], (Hanoi, 2011) Choi Byung Wook, Southern Vietnam Under the Reign of Minh Mạng (1820-1841), (New York, 2004) Crawfurd, John, Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the courts of Siam and CochinChina; exhibiting a view of the actual state of those kingdoms, 2nd edition, Vol 1, (London, 1830) Doudart de Lagrée et 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historique, administrative et politique sur la ville de Saïgon (Publiée par les soins du secrétaire général de la mairie 1917), gallica.bnf.fr 35 Petiton, Anatole La Cochinchine franỗaise : la vie Saùgon, notes de voyage, pub 1883, gallica.bnf.fr Quach Thu Nguyen et al, Hoi Dap ve Saigon, Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vol 4, (HCM, 2007) Reid, Anthony, Southeast-Asia in the Age of Commerce 1450-1680, (New Heaven, 1988) Taylor, Keith W, ‘Nguyen Hoang and Vietnam’s Southern expansion’ in Anthony Reid, ed., Southeast Asia in the early modern era: trade, power and belief, (New York, 1993) Trần Hữu Quang, Hạ tầng th Sài Gịn buổi đầu, (HCM, 2012) Trần Trọng Kim, Việt Nam Sử Lược [Concise History of Vietnam], (Hanoi, 2002) Trịnh Hoài Đức, Gia Đ nh Thành Thơng Chí [Complete Geographical History of Gia Đ nh Region], trans, Lý Việt Dũng, ed Huỳnh Văn Tới, (Saigon, 2004) Trương Hữu Quýnh, Đinh Xuân Lâm, Lê Mậu Hãn, Đại Cương L ch Sử Việt Nam Toàn Tập [Complete Collection of an Outline of Vietnamese History], (Hanoi, 2010) Vial, Paulin Franỗois Alexandre, Les premiốres annộes de la Cochinchine, colonie Franỗaise, (Paris, 1874) Trng Vnh Ký, Souvenirs historiques sur Saïgon et ses environs : conférence faite au collège des interprètes (1885), gallica.bnf.fr Bibliothèque nationale de France Vu Hong Lien, Royal Hue, Heritage of The Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam, in press, Riverbooks, (Bangkok, 2013/4) Vu Hong Lien & Peter D Sharrock, Descending Dragon, Rising Tiger: A new History of Vietnam, in press, Reaktion Books (London, exp 2014) Vương Hồng Sển Sài Gòn năm xưa (Vols I, II 1960, III 1992) (Đồng Nai-2004) 36 ... on either side of the entrance are two remarkable maps, one of Saigon showing all the canals and one of the telegraph network of the region at the beginning of the 20th century 25 One of the maps... street The interior of the citadel was served by a system of canals designed for the purpose of irrigation and transport, two of them flow out to the Saigon river from the heart of the citadel where... without the presence of the king, the city of Saigon/ Chợ Lớn continued to grow The site of the ‘city’ of Saigon was described by Trịnh Hoài Đức as about kms to the south of the trấn and served