Nguyen Hue Walking Street

The street runs along the bed of a canal that was filled in long ago. Nguyễn Huệ Street has had three lives, and the first one was made of water.

In the late 18th century, in the time of Nguyễn Ánh, this was the Kênh Lớn, the Great Canal. It was also called Kênh Chợ Vải, the Cloth Market Canal. It carried water from the Saigon River into the citadel of Gia Định. A busy cloth market lined both banks, and boats crowded the water.

The second life was a boulevard. In 1887 the French filled in the canal, for reasons of hygiene and city planning. People in Saigon called the new street Kinh Lấp, the road on the filled canal. The French named it Boulevard Charner. The name honored Admiral Léonard Charner, who was commander in chief of the French forces in Indochina in 1861. The street became the main commercial street of colonial Saigon.

In 1965 the government of South Vietnam renamed it Nguyễn Huệ. The name honors Emperor Quang Trung, also known as Nguyễn Huệ. He was born in 1753 and died in 1792, and he was a leader of the Tây Sơn movement. The Tây Sơn were three brothers who led an uprising from 1771 and for a time ruled Vietnam. He defeated an invading army of 300,000 from the Qing, the dynasty then ruling China. The battle of Ngọc Hồi and Đống Đa took place on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year of 1789. That year was called Kỷ Dậu. Quang Trung is a national hero, and the name suits the largest commercial boulevard in Saigon.

The third life is the walking street.

In October 2014, Ho Chi Minh City closed Nguyễn Huệ Street for a major renovation, in preparation for the 40th anniversary of national reunification. The whole street was paved in granite, a fountain was built, color-changing LED lights were installed, and trees were planted. It opened on April 29, 2015, the night before April 30. It is the first walking street in Vietnam planned specifically as one. It is 670 meters long and 64 meters wide.

A monument to Hồ Chí Minh was inaugurated at the north end of the street on the morning of May 17, 2015, 18 days after the opening. That day was the 125th anniversary of the birth of President Hồ Chí Minh. The monument stands in front of the headquarters of the city government, the City People's Committee, and shows him standing with a cane in his hand, in a friendly, approachable pose.

The headquarters behind the monument is a handsome work of French architecture. It was built from 1898 to 1908 and designed by the architect Fernand Gardès. It is counted among the finest French-style buildings in Saigon.

Looking south down the street, Bến Bạch Đằng, the wharf on the Saigon River, lies at the far end. On the left stands the Bitexco Financial Tower, a symbol of the city's skyline. It has 68 floors and rises 262 meters. Its shape was inspired by a Vietnamese lotus bud.

Halfway down the street, at number 42, stands The Cafe Apartment. It is an old apartment block built under French rule. Over time its apartments were turned into cafes, restaurants, fashion shops and artists' studios, spread over nine floors. Each one has its own style. Young people in Saigon call the building the vertical city.

Each year the walking street turns into the Nguyễn Huệ Flower Street for Tết, the Lunar New Year festival in Vietnam. The flower street has been held since 2004. In 2026, more than 2,200,000 visits were counted in eight days. A towering flower mascot for the Year of the Horse stood at the center, and color-changing LED lights glowed around it. It is the biggest cultural event of the year in Ho Chi Minh City.

The street went from an 18th-century canal to a colonial boulevard, then the commercial center of South Vietnam, and now the walking street of a city of 20 million people. Its shape has changed many times, but it has never stopped being the heart of Saigon.