World's Largest Chinatown. Photo Walk in Cholon District of Saigon 🇻🇳

Cholon is a historical district of Ho Chi Minh City and is sometimes called "the largest Chinatown in the world". But it was a separate city until 1931 inhabited mostly by Chinese. That's where I headed on May 25, 2024.

I was in this area many times in the 2010s, and visited all the temples so, this time, I decided to skip the official touristy part and have a photography walk in a random direction.

That's what I saw right after leaving the bus. A gorgeous building, quite Sino-Portuguese. I was trying to take closeups on the go without being smashed by motorbikes which wasn't easy. That's why I got no nice closeups 😄

When I crossed the street, someone quickly approached me, a stranger, shook my hand in a comic way, and asked me to photograph him and his friends.

I didn't mind.

That's actually a joke that happens from time to time. The fun is that, yeah, you can approach a foreigner in this straightforward way and ask them to photograph you and tour friends. And a foreigner always doesn't mind 😀

The shorter version of that joke is to say "hello" to a European-looking foreigner. Believe me or not, we always say "hello" in return 😁 Vietnamese kids love it!

I was near Hội Quán Tuệ Thành temple and decided to have a look despite my decision to avoid that official touristy part. Cool-looking temple but lifeless (on a regular day when there is no Chinese celebration). Almost only tourists as visitors.

Then, I found these doors:

Probably, remnants of a demolished building (behind the metal fence in the background):

Some excises in low shutter speed photography...

Keep walking.

Guess what these guys are doing.

They were looking at an electronic scoreboard showing lucky lucky lottery tickets' numbers. Apparently, some results were about to come; people were hoping to win. Without leaving motorbikes, of course, since... they were Vietnamese. 😀

A street portrait:

That expression on the face. I don't mean all Vietnamese drive with such a face. But their manner of driving looks exactly this way.

A market street, I had found in 2019. I came back to see if everything was alright... Yes, nothing changed. An adorable place. Some of the vendors there:

Love how casual they sit and look.

Birds, waiting. 🙁 Pity, love these white creatures.

I guess some guys think: look, it's Asia, you only need to take the camera off the bag and... But actually, it's not that easy. This simple scene: too many people, too many details, too many bikes and people passing by - you can wait for the moment of balance and harmony for an hour and then you'll find that all these people have left. That's why I usually search for: not people or scenes but a lucky moment to push the button.

I loved the hand and that labor of the old person... And when I saw one nectarine fell down, my hand followed the impulse.

Saigon has the same climate, the same plants and birds, the same chaotic architecture... But culturally it's very different. Bangkok is a city of cats; as for house dogs, you'll find many Pomeranians there. Almost no cats on Saigon streets; as for dogs, they are often corgi-like: short with short legs. Difference even in this.

I ended my walk near Binh Tay Market (1930). Can you imagine how impressive this building was in the 1930s, so tall, decorated as a temple, with a clock? Thinking about that I noticed a bus to Ben Thanh and rushed to cross the street... That sounds frightening in the context of Vietnam road traffic... but, no, I am fine, and even managed to take that bus.

More stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out my previous posts on my personal Pinmapple map

I took these images with a Nikkor 50mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 in May 25, 2024, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.