Ho Chi Minh City - one of the most important commercial and tourist centres in Vietnam - lies between the Mekong River Delta and Eastern Nam Bo. Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Sai Gon) is the second most important in Vietnam after the capital of Ha Noi. It is 1,730km by land from Ha Noi, and 50 km from the East Sea. Over the past centuries, Sai Gon was known as an important trading centre to Chinese, Japanese and Western merchants, who travelled upstream the Sai Gon River to Pho Island to ...