Dong Khoi old and new – the streets of Saigon

It’s the most famous street in Saigon, a street of many names. Originally it was 6th street, then in 1865 the French called it Rue Catinat. In 1955 the South Vietnamese Government changed it to Tu Do street, which means “liberty”.  After the war the new national Government changed it to Dong Khoi. It was named after the Dong Khoi uprising which took place in 1960 in Ben Tre and My Tho in the Mekong Delta, leading to the establishment of the National Liberation Front, better known as the Viet Cong, in December 1960. “Dong Khoi” means concerted or total uprising.

This street has always been at the heart of Saigon and has always been changing, as it continues to do today. It goes from the Majestic Hotel (built in 1925) at the river, up a slight rise to the Notre Dame Cathedral, (built between 1863 and 1880), past the Opera House (built 1897) and the Continental Hotel, (built in 1870) along the way.

For a long time the Majestic and the Continental were the only major hotels in the city. Rue Catinat was a major cafe and boutique shopping street during the French years, Tu Do was a  street of sleaze during the war, Dong Khoi was largely empty during the post-war years, and now is rapidly being rebuilt with new hotels, shopping malls and office blocks.

It is a relatively narrow one-way street, largely lined with trees, particularly at the lower end. There are endless boutiques and restaurants and art galleries, as well as plenty of street sellers from whom you can buy international newspapers, fruit, sunglasses, Christmas cards, and much more. At the top end there are Government departments and office buildings.

The old names live on. There is a Cafe Catinat and a Tu Do restaurant. The old Mirimax Hotel is now the Catinat Hotel. But there is also a new Times Square 40 storey hotel, apartments, business centre, upmarket shops and entertainment venue complex being built, as is the redevelopment of the Eden Mall, which is likely to be significantly larger and less charming than its predecessor, and further up the hill is the new, large , green block called the Vincom Centre, with modern indoor shopping, apartments and office space, in a building of very questionable design appeal. It’s a matter of taste, but I’ve never spoken to anyone who has anything positive to say about the appearance of the building, or the garish shopping centre.

It is a street of history, most famous for being central to Graham Greene’s famous book, “The Quiet American”, much of which was set at the Continental Hotel and the cafe on the opposite corner in the Eden Mall which was recently demolished.

I read a description of it from 1872 written by a young French doctor who had just arrived in Saigon and went for an early morning walk. He found the “Chinese who populate the lower end of this street ….doing their morning oblutions on their doorsteps with the lack of consideration and shamelessness which characterises this race. Carriages conducted by black hindus from Malabar…..nasty, short men, soot or clear coffee-coloured, with unkempt hair…As I distanced myself from the quay I observed that the street rose upwards and that the European houses multiplied….(T)hese buildings were, for the most part, separated one from the other by more or less extended wastelands, on which bamboo, ricinus trees, datura trees, great lianas and high grass grew as they pleased. But this bold and well-conceived line of the main artery of the city….made a very pleasant impression on me”. He was French.

Originally the street was busiest for shops and restaurants between the Majestic and the Contintental, and that is still the case today. Tourists pour out of those hotels, and the Sheraton and the Caravelle which take up a block of Dong Khoi next to the Opera House. Tourists wander up and down those couple of blocks, being target practice for the street vendors and kids selling postcards. At Tet it’s emblazoned from one end to the other. It’s still at the heart of Saigon.

Communications network outside the Department of Communications, cnr Ly Tu Trong

Times Square under construction

The appalling new Vincom Centre. The same people are redevloping Eden Mall. Help!

Opera House at Tet

Continental Hotel and Eden Mall today

Contiental Hotel and Eden Mall

New view from the Caravelle Hotel

Old view from the Caravelle Hotel

The old Carvelle on the cnr with the new building nextdoor and the Sheraton behind

Old Hotel Caravelle

Le Loi cnr is a fine place for wedding photos outside the Louis Vuitton store

The Lucien Bertinet shop on the corner of Le Loi opposite the Opera House.

Brodard cafe today – GJs runs the cafe but the Brodard sign remains

Old Brodard cafe on corner Nguyen Thiep

Sheraton Hotel cnr Dong Du

Bookshop cnr Dong Du

Today it’s the Hotel Catinat and a silk shop

The Mirimar Hotel opposite Dong Du street

Today it’s the Grand Hotel on the corner of Ngo Duc Ke

Old Saigon Palace hotel

Jaspa’s on the corner of Ngo Duc Khe

Epicerie Thai Thach, possibly on the corner of Ngo Duc Khe

Maxims now

Maxims in the 1960s

Majestic hotel today

The old Majestic Hotel overlooking the river