Where rivers carry the future

Every few months, when I return to Ho Chi Minh City, I find the banks of the Saigon river changed once more - always in a more beautiful way. It feels as though both the people and the river are flowing tirelessly, shaping the city to be finer, reaching further.

A story by Bach Dang wharf

On my most recent trip back to Ho Chi Minh City to attend a meeting between Party Secretary Tran Luu Quang and the city’s scientific and start-up community, I received another piece of uplifting news. At a working session on December 9 with Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh regarding the progress of the Vietnam International Financial Center in Ho Chi Minh City (IFC-HCM), Dr Truong Minh Huy Vu, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies, said the city had completed preparations in infrastructure, personnel and investors to operate the center. According to him, IFC-HCM is expected to open on December 19, 2025.

The IFC will cover 793 hectares, spanning Ben Thanh ward, the Saigon area, Thu Thiem and the Saigon river, with its core located in Thu Thiem. Ho Chi Minh City is thus on the verge of having a financial center mirrored on its riverfront, much like Shanghai or Singapore.

Over more than 300 years of formation and development, Sai Gon - Gia Dinh - Ho Chi Minh City has always been inseparable from its waterways, especially the Saigon river that runs through it. Since 2022, in a relatively short time, the city has taken on the shape of a riverine, near-sea metropolis, with thoughtfully planned and beautifully designed waterfront areas.

The new bridges spanning the river are no longer merely transport links between two banks. They have become decorative instruments that add grace to the cityscape. Alongside them are projects to dredge the Saigon river, build embankments, upgrade riverside roads, construct modern bridges, develop river bus routes, plan architectural spaces along both banks, and create parks, green landscapes and public cultural and recreational areas.

After the merger, Ho Chi Minh City has become a mega-urban area with long rivers, a vast sea and even mountains, growing more vibrant with major and mega projects that knit resources together. Before the merger with Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau, it was hard to imagine that the highest mountain in the country’s largest city stood at just 13 meters. Yet Nui Chua, in the island hamlet of Thieng Lieng in the former Can Gio district - where the Saigon river meets the sea - has become a distinctive highlight, an invitation to visitors from near and far.

Bringing Thieng Lieng, some 50 kilometers from the mainland, closer to the bustling riverfront has required the persistent efforts of those within Ho Chi Minh City’s tourism ecosystem. Master Nguyen Thi Thanh Thao, Head of Research and Product Development at the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, together with two doctors from the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Tourism Economics, have made countless journeys to mobilize and train residents who had never left the island hamlet, teaching families such as Sau Trung and Hai Tho how to develop tourism services.

On my second boat ride departing from Bach Dang wharf, I was still overwhelmed by the vastness of the river, the size of the vessels and the restless dynamism of a city that knows how to connect dense urban streets with a long river and open sea. Large, sturdy boats with sails billowing cut through the waves toward the ocean. It is indeed the great river of a great metropolis. Cargo ships and passenger boats, vessels heading far out and returning close in - all move in constant rhythm.

Every few months, when I return to Ho Chi Minh City, I see both banks of the Saigon river transformed again in a more beautiful way. It feels as though both the people and the river keep flowing ceaselessly so that the city may grow more splendid and reach farther still.

The vast, green Gianh river

It was no coincidence that in the 2024 writing contest “Stories of Rivers” organized by VietNamNet, as many as five entries were devoted to the Gianh river. Through those lines, the Gianh flows endlessly, telling stories of a land shaped like a shoulder pole connecting the two ends of the country.

Then in July this year, the Gianh river no longer ran through the districts of Minh Hoa, Tuyen Hoa and Quang Trach of Quang Binh province. It has become the river linking the communes of Tuyen Lam, Tuyen Son, Tuyen Binh, Tan Gianh, Ba Don and Nam Gianh in Quang Tri province.

Administrative names have changed, yet river wharves such as Ben Cho Vang, Cho Gat, Kinh Chau, Cho Cuoi, Minh Cam, Cay Thi and Ba Don, along with the ferry crossings, remain unchanged in the hearts of those born along its banks, whether they have gone far away or stayed close.

For many years, a long stretch of the Gianh river passing through what were once Tuyen Hoa and Quang Trach districts of Quang Binh province had almost no ferry service. The only means of crossing between the two banks were small rowboats, carrying both people and their motorbikes.

The tragic ferry accident at Quang Hai crossing on Lunar New Year’s Eve in 2009, on January 25, claimed 42 lives and became a powerful call to action. In quick succession, three bridges were built across the Gianh river - Quang Hai bridge inaugurated in 2009, Chau Hoa bridge in 2010 and Van Hoa bridge in 2013. Ancient villages such as Le Son, Kinh Chau and Ma Thuong, once isolated like small islands, suddenly seemed to awaken. Electricity, roads, schools, clinics and clean water were brought in; solid houses and rural roads rose as if in a dream.

Yet alongside development, the mountains face erosion from the appearance of cement factories along the same short river stretch, and the river itself is worn down by continuous sand mining. “Mountains erode, rivers run dry”, and floods have become more frequent and more devastating. How will this once dreamlike land along the Gianh river choose its path of development?

Hoang Xuan Phuc, former Head of Education of the old Tuyen Hoa district and now Party Secretary of the new Tuyen Binh commune, home to Minh Cam wharf with its rich historical layers and ancient palm forests, is clear about the task ahead. To harness the tourism potential of a riverside commune, Tuyen Binh must attract investment, strengthen links with other communes along the Gianh and with travel companies to build unified and appealing tourism products, and mobilize and train local residents to participate professionally in tourism services.

The new Tuyen Hoa commune of Quang Tri province is currently facing serious environmental pollution from cement plants and riverbank erosion caused by sand extraction. “Only when businesses adopt cleaner production, authorities enforce stricter management and residents effectively monitor activities can sustainable development truly be achieved. Economic growth must go hand in hand with preserving a clean environment for today and tomorrow,” said Minh, Party Secretary of Tuyen Hoa commune.

Invited to attend the Party Congress of Tuyen Hoa commune, I had the opportunity to hear several delegates speak candidly. “We place our trust in this generation of officials who stay close to their work and to the people. We hope they will match words with deeds, so that we will no longer see mountains carved up and rivers dredged for sale.”

The “Red river miracle”

I love Hanoi most in the early mornings after Tet, at riverside markets when traffic is still light. At that hour, elderly women from Phu Thuong, Ke Ve and Nhat Tao sell the last of their late-season pomelos, a few stray peach branches and bunches of herbs hastily gathered from garden corners. After multiple rounds of land conversion, few suburban Hanoians remain so poor that they must go to market at dawn to scrape together a few thousand dong. “I have been going to market for many years now. Without the shoulder pole, my back feels strangely light,” an elderly woman once told me when I asked why she still labored so soon after Tet. As if by natural course, a modern city is rising swiftly along both banks of the Red river, yet the traditional traits of an old riverside trading land are not easily erased.

Since the beginning of 2025, Hanoi has commenced construction of major bridges across the Red river, including Tu Lien, Ngoc Hoi, Van Phuc, Hong Ha, Me So, Thuong Cat and Tran Hung Dao. National Assembly deputy Bui Hoai Son, Standing Vice Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Society, once shared that Hanoi is nurturing the aspiration of creating a “Red river miracle” - a new symbol of revival, connectivity and sustainable development. If the “Han river miracle” helped turn Seoul into one of Asia’s most livable cities, then the “Red river miracle” may allow Hanoi to honor its history while shaping its future. The capital is moving briskly to prepare a new visage for a Tet imbued with historical resonance.

In the end, with the determination of Hanoi’s new-term Party Committee and authorities, it seems that critical bottlenecks are beginning to be cleared. I believe this as, near year’s end, I once again cross old and new bridges of Hanoi, listening to the Red river tell its stories through its ceaseless flow.

Luong Thi Bich Ngoc