95 Fun Facts About Vietnam

What is the capital of Vietnam?

Hanoi, on the Red River, has been the capital of reunified Vietnam since 1976; Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, is the larger city but not the seat of government.

Which three countries share a land border with Vietnam?

China, Laos and Cambodia are Vietnam's only land neighbours: China lies to the north and the other two along the western border, which is why Thailand, though close, never touches Vietnam.

What is Vietnam's currency?

The dong is Vietnam's currency, issued by the State Bank of Vietnam; a single unified dong replaced the separate northern and southern currencies in 1978.

Which mountain near Sa Pa, the highest in Vietnam, is nicknamed the Roof of Indochina?

Fansipan was remeasured in 2019 at 3,147.3 m, about four metres taller than the figure French surveyors recorded in 1909; it is the highest peak on the whole Indochinese peninsula.

What does the name of Ha Long Bay mean?

Descending dragon is what Ha Long means: in one telling of the legend, dragons sent by the gods to defend the coast spat out jewels that became the bay's limestone islets; UNESCO listed it in 1994.

Which is Vietnam's largest island?

Phu Quoc is Vietnam's largest island, yet it lies in the Gulf of Thailand just off Cambodia's coast, several times closer to it than to the Vietnamese mainland.

Which large mammal was declared extinct in Vietnam after the last one was reportedly shot in 2010?

The Javan rhinoceros was declared extinct in Vietnam in 2011 after the last animal in Cat Tien National Park was found shot for its horn in 2010; the species survives only in Java's Ujung Kulon.

The Dong Son culture, which flourished from about 1000 BC, is best known for elaborate cast-metal what?

The drums spread across Southeast Asia; the culture grew from wet-rice farming on the Red and Ma rivers.

Where did Ngo Quyen defeat the Southern Han in AD 938, winning full independence from China?

On the Bach Dang River, near Haiphong, Ngo Quyen planted iron-tipped stakes in the riverbed so the Southern Han fleet was impaled as the tide fell; the victory ended a millennium of Chinese domination.

Under which ruling house did Dai Viet twice repel Kublai Khan's armies in the 1280s?

The Tran dynasty, with Tran Hung Dao commanding, beat back Kublai Khan's armies in 1285 and again in 1288, the second time by trapping the Yuan fleet on stakes hidden in a tidal river.

Gia Long, who unified Vietnam in 1802, founded which last imperial dynasty?

The Nguyen dynasty began when Nguyen Anh, nephew of the last southern Nguyen lord, beat the Tay Son after a quarter-century of war and reigned as Gia Long; his line held the throne until 1945.

In which part of French Indochina did the emperor keep his throne at Hue under a French protectorate?

Annam, the central region, kept its emperor at Hue as a French protectorate, while Cochinchina in the far south had been ceded to France and was ruled directly as a colony.

Which movement urged starving peasants to seize the rice granaries during northern Vietnam's famine of 1945?

The Viet Minh turned anger over the famine, which killed between 400,000 and two million people, against French and Japanese rule, and by September Ho Chi Minh was proclaiming independence.

Ho Chi Minh opened his 1945 speech founding Vietnam's new republic by quoting which American text?

Declaration of Independence: its line 'All men are created equal' opened his speech; he then cited France's Declaration of the Rights of Man, turning both countries' ideals against colonial rule.

Before turning to politics, the young Ho Chi Minh worked abroad in which trade?

Cook and pastry chef: he left Saigon in 1911 as a kitchen hand on a French steamer and is said to have later worked as a pastry chef on a cross-Channel ferry, before settling in Paris and turning to politics.

Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body lies in a mausoleum despite his own wish for what?

Cremation was the wish Ho set down in his will, with his ashes to be spread across north, centre and south; instead his embalmed body lies in a granite mausoleum inspired by Lenin's in Moscow.

The 1954 French defeat that ended the First Indochina War came at which place?

Dien Bien Phu, a remote valley base in the north-west, fell to General Giap's besieging army on 7 May 1954; ten weeks later the Geneva Accords ended French rule in Indochina.

The Geneva Accords of 1954 divided Vietnam along which line of latitude?

The 17th parallel was meant as a temporary military line until nationwide elections in July 1956; the vote was never held, and the line hardened into the border between two states.

Which US Navy operation helped some 900,000 northerners move south in the 300 days of free movement after 1954?

Passage to Freedom, run by the US Navy from August 1954 to May 1955, carried over 300,000 of the roughly 900,000 northerners, most of them Catholics, who moved south before the demarcation line closed.

How did Ngo Dinh Diem topple Bao Dai and proclaim the Republic of Vietnam in October 1955?

A fraudulent referendum on 23 October 1955, run by Diem's brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, credited Diem with over 98 per cent of the vote and counted more ballots in Saigon than the city had registered voters.

Which 1964 naval clash was the US pretext for escalating its military role in Vietnam?

The Gulf of Tonkin incident of August 1964, a clash between the destroyer USS Maddox and North Vietnamese torpedo boats plus a disputed second attack, led Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on 7 August.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail, which supplied the Viet Cong, ran largely through which country?

Laos carried most of the Ho Chi Minh Trail: the network of roads and paths ran down the Laotian panhandle west of the Truong Son mountains, and the US secretly bombed it for years trying to cut the supply line.

The 1968 Tet Offensive failed militarily but had what decisive effect?

It turned US public opinion against the war: the attacks on more than 100 towns and cities were beaten back, yet they shattered official claims that victory was near, and Johnson soon chose not to run again.

Lieutenant William Calley led a platoon of which US Army company at My Lai in March 1968?

Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry did the killing in My Lai itself; helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson landed between the troops and fleeing villagers to stop it.

Which president ordered William Calley moved from the stockade to house arrest days after his My Lai murder conviction?

Richard Nixon stepped in within days of the 1971 verdict; Calley's life sentence was then cut in stages, and he served about three years under house arrest before going free in 1974.

Which North Vietnamese negotiator refused the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize shared with Henry Kissinger?

Le Duc Tho declined the prize he was to share with Kissinger, saying the truce was being violated and there was still no real peace in Vietnam; the fighting went on for two more years after the Paris accords.

Which 1975 operation flew more than 7,000 people out of Saigon in the largest helicopter evacuation in history?

Frequent Wind lifted Americans and South Vietnamese from the US embassy and the Defense Attaché compound to ships waiting offshore on 29-30 April 1975, hours before the city fell.

Which dioxin-laced chemical did US aircraft spray over South Vietnam's forests from 1962 to 1971?

Agent Orange was a defoliant meant to strip away the jungle cover hiding Viet Cong fighters; Vietnam says up to four million people were exposed, and a US-funded dioxin clean-up began in 2012.

In 1978 Vietnam invaded which country and overthrew its government?

Cambodia was invaded on 25 December 1978 after Khmer Rouge attacks on Vietnamese border villages; Phnom Penh fell within two weeks, and China, the regime's backer, struck northern Vietnam in February 1979.

What name was given to the market reforms launched at the Communist Party's Sixth Congress in 1986?

Doi Moi, meaning 'renovation', was adopted at the Sixth Party Congress in December 1986, opening Vietnam's state-run economy to private enterprise, market prices and foreign investment.

More than 90 per cent of the coffee grown in Vietnam is which bitter, high-caffeine variety?

Robusta thrives in Vietnam's Central Highlands; a planting boom there since the early 1990s has turned a minor grower into the world's second-largest coffee producer, behind only Brazil.

Which Vietnamese noodle soup is thought to have first been sold around 1900 in Nam Dinh province?

Pho emerged around the turn of the twentieth century in Nam Dinh, then a busy textile centre; French demand for beef had left a ready supply of bones for the broth.

Which Vietnamese street food, served in a French-style baguette, entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 2011?

Banh mi began with the baguette French colonists introduced in the 1860s; Vietnamese cooks filled it with pate, pickled vegetables, chilli and herbs and made it everyday street food.

Which Saigon shop became one of the first to sell the filled banh mi thit sandwich in 1958?

Hoa Ma, opened on Phan Dinh Phung Street in 1958 by a couple from the north, began packing cold cuts and pate into a single baguette for customers in a hurry, and the portable banh mi thit was born.

Which Vietnamese garment did artist Nguyen Cat Tuong restyle in the 1930s as a close-fitting, floor-length tunic?

Ao dai in its modern form comes from his 'Le Mur' design, which took in the waist to follow the body's curves; the writers of the Self-Reliant Literary Group championed it in their magazines.

Which square, sticky-rice cake is the traditional food of Tet, the lunar new year?

Banh chung is sticky rice packed around mung bean and pork and boiled in leaves; legend says a poor prince won his father's throne with it, shaping the cake square to stand for the earth.

Nuoc mam, Vietnam's staple seasoning, is made by fermenting what with salt?

Fish are packed with salt in large vats and left to ferment for months; the brown liquid that is then drawn off and bottled is nuoc mam.

Vietnam won its first ASEAN football championship in 2008 by beating which country in the two-leg final?

Thailand were minutes from forcing extra time in the second leg when Le Cong Vinh scored in the fourth minute of stoppage time, sealing a 3-2 aggregate win.

Vietnamese classical opera is traditionally traced to a Chinese actor captured during which event?

The Mongol invasions of the 13th century are said to have left a famous Chinese actor a prisoner in Vietnam, where the court had him teach the sung drama that grew into hat tuong.

Vietnam's national dragon symbol is thought to derive its form from which two animals?

Crocodile and snake: the early Vietnamese dragon is thought to combine the crocodile's head and body with the snake's sinuous form, before Chinese-style features were added; the dragon, unicorn, turtle and phoenix are the four sacred animals.

Vietnam's system of internet censorship is nicknamed what?

The Bamboo Firewall is the nickname for Vietnam's internet controls, which block sites run by overseas opposition groups, independent media and human-rights campaigners; the OpenNet Initiative rated the political filtering 'pervasive'.

According to legend, which eighteen rulers made up the Hong Bang dynasty, founded in 2879 BC?

Hung kings are still honoured every spring: the tenth day of the third lunar month, the main day of their temple festival, has been a public holiday in Vietnam since 2007.

Which body formally elects Vietnam's president and prime minister?

National Assembly deputies, sitting as a single chamber, elect the president and the prime minister, yet real power rests with the Communist Party, which the constitution names the leading force of state and society.

Which cave in central Vietnam, first surveyed in 2009, is the largest known cave in the world?

Son Doong was found in the early 1990s by local man Ho Khanh, who then could not find the entrance again for years; British cavers surveyed it in 2009 and found rainforest growing inside.

Which airport was Vietnam's busiest by passenger numbers in 2024?

Tan Son Nhat, in Ho Chi Minh City, was Vietnam's busiest airport in 2024, well ahead of Noi Bai; its chronic congestion led to the building of a new airport, Long Thanh, to take the overflow.

Which animal takes the place of the Rabbit in the Vietnamese zodiac's twelve-year cycle?

The Cat fills the Rabbit's slot, a swap usually put down to pronunciation: the zodiac's written sign for the rabbit is said much like meo, the Vietnamese word for a cat.

Which hit mobile game did its Vietnamese creator pull from app stores in 2014 as too addictive?

Flappy Bird was earning about $50,000 a day from adverts when its developer took it down. Phones with the game installed were then listed on eBay for thousands of dollars.

Which ingredient stood in for scarce milk in a coffee recipe devised in 1940s Vietnam?

Egg yolk beaten with sugar gives the drink its custard-like foam. The family behind Giang Café says its founder came up with it when dairy ran short.

According to legend, which creature rose from Hoan Kiem Lake to reclaim Emperor Le Loi's sword?

A turtle god surfaced beside the emperor's boat and asked for the blade back once the Ming armies were beaten, which is why its home is called the Lake of the Returned Sword.

Which Vietnamese religion, founded in Tay Ninh in 1926, counts novelist Victor Hugo as a saint?

Caodaism names Hugo, the revolutionary Sun Yat-sen and a 16th-century Vietnamese poet as its three saints, pictured together at the entrance to its Tay Ninh temple.

Vietnamese pilot Pham Tuan became the first Asian in space in 1980 with which country's programme?

The Soviet Union carried him to the Salyut 6 station on Soyuz 37 as a guest cosmonaut, and he learned only three days before launch that he would be on the crew.

Which Vietnamese farm animal reached the United States via Canada in the 1980s and became a pet?

The pot-bellied pig descends from Vietnam's native I breed, small numbers of which were first sent abroad in the 1960s to zoos and laboratories in Canada and Sweden.

In the name Vietnam, made official by Emperor Gia Long in 1804, what does the word 'Nam' mean?

South is the sense, so Viet Nam reads as 'Viet of the South'. The emperor first asked to call his realm Nam Viet, but the Qing court refused and reversed the two words.

Miss Saigon, the 1989 musical set late in the Vietnam War, retells the story of which Puccini opera?

Madama Butterfly's geisha and naval officer became a Saigon bar girl and a US Marine, in a show from the writers of Les Misérables.

Which footbridge near Da Nang, opened in 2018, appears to rest in two giant stone hands?

The Golden Bridge loops for 150 metres through the Ba Na Hills resort, and its weathered-looking hands are really fibreglass over wire mesh.

Which river ends its long run from the Tibetan Plateau in a delta at Vietnam's southern tip?

The Mekong passes through six countries before it reaches the sea, and in Vietnam it is called Cuu Long, the river of Nine Dragons.

Which emblem sits at the centre of Vietnam's red national flag, first flown in a 1940 uprising?

A gold star fills the middle of the red background, and its points are said to stand for intellectuals, farmers, workers, entrepreneurs and soldiers.

What is a non la, the Vietnamese item whose Hue variety hides verses visible only against the sun?

A conical hat that tapers smoothly from brim to tip, the non la is worn above all to keep off both sun and rain, and the poem version shows its verses when held up to the light.

Which condiment, known in Vietnam as nuoc mam, has its own museum in the coastal town of Phan Thiet?

Fish sauce needs little more than anchovies and salt left to ferment, and Phan Thiet is regarded as the birthplace of the Vietnamese style.

Which thin wrapper holds the prawns, pork and herbs in goi cuon, Vietnam's uncooked summer rolls?

Rice paper is briefly moistened to soften it before rolling, and the finished rolls are served at room temperature, unlike their deep-fried cousin cha gio.

Which country alone grows more coffee than Vietnam, where missionaries first planted it in 1857?

Brazil alone outgrows Vietnam, where the first plantations were not laid out until 1888 and output soared only after the war years.

Missionaries from which European country devised the first version of Vietnam's modern alphabet?

Portugal supplied the Jesuits, led by Francisco de Pina, who first wrote Vietnamese in Roman letters, which is why its spelling follows Portuguese habits more than French ones.

Which folk art, born in 11th-century Red River Delta villages, hides its performers behind a screen?

Water puppetry began as village entertainment when the paddies flooded, and up to eight puppeteers stand waist-deep to work lacquered wooden figures with hidden underwater rods.

Which comedian improvised most of his radio broadcasts as a DJ in the film Good Morning, Vietnam?

Robin Williams earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for the part, loosely based on a real Armed Forces Radio DJ who was posted to Saigon in 1965.

Which future US senator was held prisoner in North Vietnam from 1967 after his jet was shot down?

John McCain turned down an offer of early release in 1968, because accepting would have meant going home ahead of prisoners who had been held longer.

Which pond flower, also the national bloom of India, is widely treated as Vietnam's national flower?

The lotus holds the title only unofficially, yet Vietnamese kitchens find a use for most of the plant, scenting green tea with its blossoms and tossing its young stems into salads.

Which mammal, nicknamed the Asian unicorn, was unknown to science until a 1992 survey in Vietnam?

The saola was the first large mammal found in the region for 50 years, and none has survived more than a few months in captivity.

Which district outside Saigon hid Viet Cong tunnels used as a base for the 1968 Tet Offensive?

Cu Chi's tunnels were one part of a far larger web dug beneath the country, and a few stretches have since been widened so that tourists can squeeze through.

Which grilled-pork noodle dish did Barack Obama eat with TV host Anthony Bourdain in Vietnam?

Bun cha pairs fatty grilled pork with white noodles, herbs and a dipping bowl, and a food writer in 1959 was already describing the capital as a town obsessed with it.

The Vietnamese term 'xe om', literally 'hug vehicle', refers to which everyday form of transport?

A motorcycle taxi gets the name because the passenger holds on to the driver, who usually carries a spare helmet, since the law makes riders and passengers alike wear one.

Which mountain chain, known in Vietnamese as Truong Son, follows the coast for about 1,100 km?

The Annamite Range walls off Vietnam's narrow coastal plain from the river basins of the interior, rising steeply on its seaward side where short rivers drain the slopes.

Which Vietnamese holiday is a children's night of lantern parades and mooncakes under a full moon?

The Mid-Autumn Festival brings children masks, lamps and edible toy figurines, along with the story of Uncle Cuoi, who is said to sit beneath a banyan tree on the moon.

Which pink flower fills northern Vietnamese homes at Tet, while southerners favour yellow hoa mai?

Peach blossom, hoa dao, is the northern choice, and many living rooms in the north also make space for a potted kumquat tree over the holiday.

Which official name was adopted in July 1976 when the two Vietnamese states merged into one?

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam joined the communist north to the south, which a provisional revolutionary government had run since the war ended.

Which Vietnamese electric-car maker, founded in Hai Phong in 2017, listed on Nasdaq in 2023?

VinFast was the first Vietnamese carmaker to sell passenger cars abroad, and soon after listing it was briefly valued above several long-established global manufacturers.

Which James Bond film moved its planned Vietnam shoot to Thailand after its visa was withdrawn?

Tomorrow Never Dies would have been the first major film shot in the country since the war, but the prime minister cancelled the permit two months into planning.

Which 1955 Graham Greene novel follows a British journalist in Saigon late in the colonial era?

The Quiet American sets jaded reporter Thomas Fowler against Alden Pyle, a young idealist working undercover for the CIA, and drew on Greene's own years as a war correspondent there.

Which Vietnamese monk did Martin Luther King Jr. nominate for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967?

Thich Nhat Hanh was exiled for refusing to take sides in the war and went on to teach mindfulness to the West from Plum Village, the monastery he founded in France.

Which US president lifted the trade embargo on Vietnam in 1994, then restored diplomatic ties?

Bill Clinton reopened relations two decades after the war ended, then made a landmark trip to Vietnam himself in November 2000.

Which Yale undergraduate won the 1981 design competition for Washington's Vietnam Veterans Memorial?

Maya Lin's pair of polished granite walls beat more than 1,400 rival entries, though the backlash was fierce enough that a flagstaff and a statue of soldiers were added as a compromise.

Kings of which Hindu realm built the brick temples of My Son in central Vietnam?

Champa's rulers worshipped Shiva at the site for some 900 years, yet most of its towers were destroyed by US bombing in a single week of the Vietnam War.

Which official name is used for Vietnam's ethnic majority, about 85% of the population?

The Kinh, also called simply the Viet, began in the north of the country and spread southwards over the last thousand years.

Vietnam avoids the name South China Sea for the ocean off its long coast, calling it what instead?

East Sea describes where it lies as seen from Vietnam's shore, while the Chinese name for the very same stretch of ocean translates as South Sea.

What is bia hoi, made each day and delivered to Vietnamese street bars in steel barrels?

Draught beer of this kind is a light lager, matured only briefly and sold at a fraction of the price of bottled brands.

Which prize did Ngo Bao Chau become the first Vietnamese to win, for proving the fundamental lemma?

The Fields Medal went to a former prodigy: as a schoolboy he twice took the highest award at the International Mathematical Olympiad, the first time with a perfect score.

Which Vietnamese epic poem follows a woman who sells herself into marriage to free her father?

The Tale of Kieu runs to 3,254 verses and reworks the plot of a Chinese novel of the 1600s into a portrait of the upheavals of the poet's own age.

Which Pulitzer-winning novel is narrated by a communist mole among Vietnamese exiles in the US?

The Sympathizer was its author's debut, published in 2015, and its nameless narrator stays embedded with the defeated army's community long after the war is over.

Which Vietnamese martial art, founded in 1938, has spread to schools from Poland to Morocco?

Vovinam is short for Vo Viet Nam, simply 'Vietnamese martial arts', and was devised to give students a workable self-defence after only a short period of study.

Da cau, counted as Vietnam's national sport, means keeping what in the air without using the hands?

A shuttlecock with a heavily weighted base is kicked back and forth across a badminton court, and the same game is known in the Philippines as sipa.

The dan bau, a Vietnamese zither once built around half a coconut shell, is unusual for having what?

Only one string, originally of silk, is stretched along the instrument, and legend says it was first played by a blind woman earning her family's keep in the market.

Which Vietnamese beauty custom faded after Western fashions arrived in the colonial era?

Blackening the teeth is often confused with the red stain left by chewing betel, but unlike betel the dye did no damage to the teeth or gums.

The crisp Vietnamese pancake banh xeo takes its name from which feature of its cooking?

Its sizzling sound, xeo, is the noise a thin layer of batter makes as it hits the hot metal, before the crepe is stuffed and served with basil, mint and lettuce.

Which road between Hue and Da Nang, whose name means 'ocean cloud', starred in a Top Gear special?

The Hai Van Pass twists for about 21 km over a spur that divides the climates of north and south, though most traffic has been spared its bends since a tunnel opened beneath it.

To which language family, shared with Khmer rather than with Chinese, does Vietnamese belong?

Austroasiatic is a family that Vietnamese dominates: it has several times as many native speakers as all the other member languages put together.

Which Oscar-nominated 1993 film, set in mid-century Saigon, was shot entirely on a soundstage in France?

The Scent of Green Papaya recreated its Saigon household in a studio outside Paris, and it won the prize for best first feature at Cannes.