Nha Rong wharf is a popular tourist destination in Ho Chi Minh City. This was the place where President Ho Chi Minh embarked in 1911 to seek a path to national salvation.
Nha Rong Wharf attracts millions of Vietnamese and foreign tourists every year.
Nha Rong, which means House of Dragon, is one of the few remaining buildings in the French architectural style in Ho Chi Minh City. Situated by the Saigon River, it is a perfect blend of Eastern and Western architecture.
Thu Nguyet is a site guide. She said, "This house was built by the French between 1862 and 1863. Two ceramic dragons turning to the moon are arranged symmetrically on its roof. That's why the house was called Dragon House. It is built on a harbor called "Nha Rong Port".
The Dragon House was originally the seat of the imperial couriers. Today, the site is best known for being the starting point of Ho Chi Minh’s quest for national salvation.
"In the past, Nha Rong port was a great seaport of Sai Gon-Gia Dinh. It is from this port that the young Ho Chi Minh went in search of a path to national salvation using the name Van Ba”, tour guide My Hanh noted. In June 1911, the young Van Ba, then aged 21, embarked aboard the ship Admiral Latouche Treville to sail to France. Thirty years later, after traveling several countries around the world, he returned to his homeland as Ho Chi Minh to lead the revolution.
On September 2, 1945, at historic Ba Dinh Square, he read the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence founding the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam.
After the liberation of Sai Gon and national reunification in 1975, Nha Rong (Dragon House) became a memorial site dedicated to the great Vietnamese leader. In 1995, this building was upgraded to become a branch of the Ho Chi Minh Museum.
In its early days, the museum covered an area of 250 square meters and had three exhibit rooms.
Today it covers more than 148,000 square meters and has nine exhibit halls. More than 11,300 documents and objects are on display and 450 are shown outdoors giving visitors information about Ho Chi Minh’s life and revolutionary career.
In the museum’s visitor book, a representative of a delegation of the Lao Revolutionary Party wrote: “President Ho Chi Minh is not just a great leader of Vietnam but also ours”.
A visitor from Bulgaria wrote “President Ho Chi Minh’s great personality is admired by millions of people around the world”. An English visitor wrote: “Ho Chi Minh is one of the greatest figures of the 20th century”.