Ho Chi Minh City puts forward preservation plan for French-era railway HQ

A 20th-century building in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, believed to be the last remnant of Saigon’s early railway system, has found itself at the heart of an ongoing debate about how the city should preserve its past. The building in question, the current headquarters of the Saigon Railway Company, sits across from Ho Chi Minh City’s iconic Ben Thanh Market, with its main entrance facing Quach Thi Trang Roundabout and a separate entrance overlooking Ham Nghi Street. Inaugurated during the French colonial period in 1914, the same year as the opening of Ben Thanh Market, the building was originally known as the Bureau du Chemin de Fer (Railway Bureau), belonging to the Indochina Railway Company. In a recent proposal, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee suggested that the building be handed over to the municipal authorities for preservation and be converted into a museum detailing the history of Vietnam’s railway system. The state-owned Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR), however, objected to the proposition, citing the building’s current designation as the headquarters for four of the organization’s agencies. Relocating the agencies would hurt VNR’s bottom line and affect its current investment and development plans, it said. Famed architect Ngo Viet Nam Son disagrees with such… Read full this story

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