Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Ho Chi Minh City
Chợ Lớn and the war museum in six hours
The Chinese quarter, its temples and wholesale market, and the museum that explains the rest of the country.
The three-hour route stays in District 1. Chợ Lớn is the Chinese city four kilometres west, founded in 1778 and still the largest Chinatown in Vietnam, with temples hung with coils of incense that burn for a month. The War Remnants Museum on the way back is not an easy hour and is the single most important building for a visitor in Saigon.
The route, stop by stop
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Thiên Hậu Temple
Arrive by taxi from the previous stop
Built by Cantonese merchants in the 1760s for the sea goddess, with spiral incense coils hanging from the roof beams and burning for weeks.
40 min here Walk here → -
Bình Tây Market
The wholesale market at the heart of Chợ Lớn, in a 1928 building with a clock tower and a courtyard shrine to its founder.
45 min here Walk here → -
Chợ Lớn streets
Traditional medicine shops, lantern makers before the mid-autumn festival, and a street given over entirely to fabric.
35 min here Walk here → -
Jade Emperor Pagoda
Arrive by taxi from the previous stop
Taoist, from 1909, dim and thick with smoke, with carved wooden panels of hell in the side hall and a turtle pond outside.
45 min here Walk here → -
War Remnants Museum
Arrive by taxi from the previous stop
Unambiguous about whose museum it is, and the photojournalism floor is among the best collections of war photography anywhere. Allow the time and expect to be quiet afterwards.
90 min here Walk here → -
Tao Đàn Park
Ten hectares of old trees behind the palace, full of tai chi, badminton and caged songbirds from six in the morning.
30 min here Walk here →
More in Ho Chi Minh City
Every walking route in Ho Chi Minh City, or the full Ho Chi Minh City guide for where to stay and what a day costs.