The streets of Saigon – Nguyen Thi Minh Khai

Nguyen Thi Minh Khai is a major thoroughfare in Saigon. It runs from south to north, mostly one-way, from the large Sau Cong Hoa roundabout where Nguyen Thi Minh Khai starts at the border of Districts 1, 3, 5 and 10. It continues north to the Botanical Gardens at the far end of District 1 where its name changes to Xo Viet Nghe Tinh, crosses the Thi Nghe canal, and heads north through Binh Thanh district, across the Saigon River and into Thu Doc district. It then becomes the main road through Binh Duong province and continues through Binh Phuoc province to the border with Cambodia. It cuts across north-east Cambodia, through the length of Laos, and up to the border with China, if you want to stay on it for long enough.

It is named after Nguyen Thi Minh Khai who was a revolutionary in the 1930s and one of the leaders of the Indochinese Communist Party, the forerunner of today’s Vietnam Communist Party. In the 1920s the Party sent her to its headquarters in Hong Kong. She worked there with Ho Chi Minh. She was arrested, convicted and imprisoned for 3 years in Hong Kong in 1931 for her involvement with the Hong Kong branch of Comintern (the international communist organisation at the time). On her release she was smuggled on a ship to Vladivostok. She studied in Moscow and was the only woman to address the Seventh Congress of the Comintern in Moscow, the final Comintern Congress which was subject to infiltration by Stalin who killed the leading delegates from several of the 65 member countries as well as over a quarter of the Comintern’s 492 staff.

In 1936 she was appointed as Party Secretary of the Saigon-Cho Lon branch of the Party, a position she held for 3 years. She had a daughter in 1940, but despite that she was heavily involved in organising the failed Nam Ky Khoi Nghia (Southern Insurrection) uprising against the French on the night of 22nd November 1940, which attempted unsuccessfully to take advantage of the weakened position of France as a result of the Second World War and the French-Japanese struggle in Vietnam. She was captured by the French and tortured. She is regarded as a heroine for refusing to divulge information about other party members. Minh Khai was executed by the French on 28th August 1941, along with 4 of her team. Many cities in Vietnam have a street named after her.

When she lived in Russia she had married to Le Hong Phong, a fellow revolutionary who was killed by the French in gaol in 1942. Her sister was the first wife of the Vietnamese war hero, Vo Nguyen, who is credited with having beaten both the French and the Americans and is still alive at the age of 100.

Nguyen Thi Minh Khai is a wide (for Saigon – 3 or 4 lanes) and very busy street. It passes the Palace and its gardens, the French Consulate, and the Botanical Gardens. There are several large serviced apartment buildings, such as Avalon, Sailing, Somerset and Indochine. Past the intersection with Cach Mang Tam Thang there are dozens of furniture stores jammed in next to each other. Along the way there are sports shops, electronic shops, computer shops, dentists, book shops, anything you want. The intersections with Cach Mang Tam Thang, Hai Ba Trung, Nam Ky Khoi Nghia and Ton Duc Thang streets are always eye-opening. Millions of motorbikes pour down it every minute of every day, as do many buses on their way to the north. It is Saigon on the move.