Cholon — Saigons Chinatown & die Chinesische Gemeinschaft in Bezirk 5
Cholon (Chợ Lớn — 'Big Market', the Chinatown of Ho Chi Minh City in District 5 and District 6 — the largest Chinatown in Southeast Asia and the commercial heart of Vietnamese Chinese (Người Hoa) culture in Vietnam): Cholon was historically the commercial engine of Saigon and remains the most economically important Chinese community in Vietnam, with a population of approximately 500,000 ethnic Chinese (Hoa) residents.
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Chợ Lớn — Saigon's 'Big Market' Chinese Quarter
Chợ Lớn ('Big Market', Districts 5, 6, and 11) is the largest Chinatown in Southeast Asia — founded by ethnic Chinese (Hoa) immigrants in the 18th century, the area has its own dialect (Cantonese and Teochew), temples, herbalists, and wholesale markets that function independently from the Vietnamese city; the Bình Tây wholesale market (1927) processes 200+ tonnes of goods daily and is still the commercial hub.
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Thien Hau Temple — Cantonese Sea Goddess, 1760
Thien Hau Temple (710 Nguyễn Trãi, District 5, 1760) is the most important Cantonese temple in Vietnam — dedicated to the sea goddess Mazu (protector of sailors and fishermen), the temple's ceiling is hung with hundreds of incense coils that burn for weeks; the annual Thien Hau Festival (16th day of the first lunar month) draws 50,000 worshippers in procession through Cholon's streets.
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Thiên Hậu Traditional Medicine Street — Lung Tau Street
Lương Nhữ Học (District 5, 'Traditional Medicine Street') is lined with herbalist shops selling the entire pharmacopeia of traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine — dried sea horses, rhinoceros horn substitutes (legally traded alternatives), ginseng roots (up to €500/gram for top-grade Korean red ginseng), dried mushrooms, and 500+ other dried ingredients in burlap sacks; herbalists provide diagnoses by pulse and tongue.
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Bình Tây Market — Wholesale Cholon at 4am
Bình Tây Market (Chợ Bình Tây, District 6, the official 'Cholon Market', 1927) is a wholesale market operating at full capacity from 4–8am — vendors selling household goods, food additives, dried noodles, and imported Chinese goods fill the ornate yellow-and-red market building; a stroll through the market at 5am is an immersive encounter with a commercial infrastructure that has not fundamentally changed in 100 years.
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Cha Tam Church — President Diem's Last Hours
The Church of Saint Francis Xavier (Cha Tam, 25 Học Lạc, District 5, 1902) is where South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu sought refuge after the November 1963 US-backed coup — they were captured here and murdered in the back of an armoured personnel carrier en route to the Military Command Headquarters; the church continues as an active Catholic parish.
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Chợ Lớn Night Market — Dim Sum at 2am
The Cholon night food market (Hải Thượng Lãn Ông, District 5, midnight–5am) is where Saigon's restaurant industry eats after service — Cantonese dim sum (har gow, siu mai, rice noodle rolls, turnip cakes) alongside Vietnamese dishes are served in cramped plastic-stool restaurants; the 2am crowd includes chefs, taxi drivers, night nurses, and clubbers; a full dim sum order for two costs 150,000–200,000 VND.