Southern Vietnam

Southern Vietnam is one of the three geographical regions of Vietnam, the other two being Northern and Central Vietnam. It includes 2 administrative regions, which in turn are divided into 19 First Tier units, of which 17 are provinces and 2 are municipalities. Known as Nam Bo today in Vietnamese, it was historically called as Gia Dịnh (1779–1832), Nam Ky (1832–1945), Nam Bo (1945–48), and Nam Phan (1948–75).

Southern Vietnam (Basse-Cochinchine in French, or Lower Cochinchina), whose principal city is Saigon, is the newest territory of the Vietnamese people in the movement of Southward expansion. This region was also the first part of Vietnam to be colonized by the French as French Cochinchina.

The region is dominated by Ho Chi Minh City, sometimes called Saigon, is Vietnam’s buzzing, tropical metropolis – a business-mad place packed with skyscrapers, tree-lined boulevards and enough tasty food to last a lifetime. From here you can float around the Mekong Delta, known as the region’s “rice bowl”, or fly to resort haven Phu Quoc Island before heading north to the sand dunes of Mui Ne and the picture-perfect beaches of Nha Trang.