Cholon, or Ho Chi Minh City's Chinatown, is not as I had expected. Apparently, it was the Chinese who first founded this city, with its market at the very centre. If you study the map of Indochine (as the French call it) on the left wall of the Post Office, you'll find a black dot indicating the town of Cholon and distinct from the black dot indicating the new French settlement of Saigon. For the obvious reason of political influence, the French decided to establish their outpost a little distance away from the local city, heralding a new era of change and reconstruction.
Over time, the town of Cholon became incorporated into the rest of the sprawl that is Ho Chi Minh City as the latter expanded. Cholon itself assimilated local Vietnamese culture - Chinese signboards can still be seen here and there although Vietnamese signs now outnumber them. The local community speak both Cantonese and Vietnamese proficiently without an accent that could distinguish them from the local Vietnamese. The district is no longer the Chinese outpost trying to spread civilization to the local barbarians- another of Ho Chi Minh City's many districts modernizing beyond distinction and recognition.
Thien Hau Temple
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