Interesting meaning of some places in Saigon you may not know yet

Do you know the origin of the names of places like: Đakao, Thị Nghè, Thủ Thiêm . where to start?

1. Rub And Bridge

With a history of more than 100 years, the Cha Va bridge spanning Tau Hu canal has contributed to trade in Cho Lon area between District 8 and District 5. Cha Va Bridge has a width of about 30m, a length of 190m, has 2 more branches. Side up and down the East-West Highway, ensuring the vehicles on the bridge do not intersect to minimize traffic congestion.

Actually, Cha Va is the Vietnamese way of pronouncing the Java word - the name of an island in Indonesia. Well And referring to people from Java Island, later used to call all people of the same color as Cha Bom Bay (Bombay, India), Cha Ma (Manila, Philippines). It is clear why the area of ​​Cha Bridge and once the market street of Indians selling cloth is called Cha Va. In addition, at the end of Cha Va bridge toward District 8, there is the famous Phi Long theater , regularly showing Indian films to serve residents around the region.

2. Lang Ong Ba Chieu

Located at No. 1, Vu Tung Street, Ward 1, Binh Thanh District, Lang Ong Ba Chieu is still and quiet, watching the young and modern city more exciting and modern. And if anyone suddenly asks you, who does Mr. Ba Chieu's tomb worship, why is it so called, can you answer it?

Ong Ba Chieu's mausoleum (called Lang Ong for short, also known less commonly than Thuong Cong Mieu) is the tomb area of Ta Quan Le Van Duyet . Because of the special name, many people often misunderstand that this mausoleum was created to worship him and worship her name Chieu. In fact, this is the shrine of Ta Quan Le Van Duyet and the custom of abstaining from naming, so often called Lang Ong. Lang is located next to Ba Chieu market, and that is the origin of the name Lang Ong Ba Chieu.

3. Thị Nghè

Point through the names of some places, canals, wards in District 1 area, people will easily hear and hear the name Thi Nghe, sometimes appearing under the name of a canal, the bridge, sometimes appeared as a market, a church. In addition, the part of the territory including a part of wards 17, 19 and 21 in Binh Thanh district is also called Thi Nghe.

According to " Gia Dinh Thanh thong chi" , " Tran Phien An ", Thi Nghe is the folk name of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Khanh - daughter of Kham mandarin Nguyen Cuu Van, and a wife of a secretary. Mrs. Nguyen Thi Khanh has a husband who is a secretary, so the contemporaries called Ms. Nghè but did not claim her name. The reason for that name was because she had merit in reclaiming residential land and bridging to facilitate travel to the people. In admiration for her, people decided to call the bridge of Ba Nghe bridge, calling it Ba Nghe river .

To this day, the name Thi Nghe is still retained as a posterity to remember the merit of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Khanh.

4. Ben Nghe

The name Ben Nghe, originally the name of a wharf, after only one river, eventually used only one locality (central Ho Chi Minh City today). To explain the name Ben Nghe, there are two theories:

Firstly, according to the deputy director Nguyen Van Sieu in the book " Phuong Dinh Residual Address " (1900), it is said that this river is full of crocodiles, each group chases each other like a buffalo sound, so it is called (nghé buffalo bulls). The book " Dai Nam Nhat thong chi ", part of Gia Dinh province, is similarly copied.

According to scholar Truong Vinh Ky, Ben Nghe originating from Khmer - Kompong means dock, Kon Krabei means buffalo. The geographer Le Trung Hoa also agreed that: Ben Nghe is a wharf that " people often give buffaloes and cows to bathe " because there are many places created by " wharf + animal name" such as: Ben Nghe canal (House Raft), Ben Tuong canal (Song Be).

5. Train channel

With a total length of 22km, crossing between Ho Chi Minh City and stretching in the area of ​​8 districts and Tau Hu channel, many people wonder about the origin of the name " listen to only crave " while around this area is not Is there a tradition of making tofu?

According to scholar Truong Vinh Ky (written in 1885) and Huynh Tinh Cua (writing in the late 19th century), the street passing through Cho Lon canal is called Tau Khau , which is how the Chaozhou people pronounce the word " loincloth. " " (brick house), behind the sound camp into Tau Hu . However, there are also opinions that, looking at the black water channel and "additives " floating on it, it is very stinking, but people think about the similarity, the tofu is somewhat . poetic, Should call so.

The Tau Hu canal never had a poetic beauty that captivated the viewers, but it was still deep in the subconscious of the Saigon people with the image of a big boat with a bustling trade and a special historical period.

6. Da Kao

Đakao - the name that many Saigon people are familiar with, a name that has a strong impression when heard, is similar to the Vietnamese name but when it comes to writing, it has a Western appearance. What's special about the history behind this "half-man" ?

In the past, there was a period of two cities of Saigon and Cholon merged into "Local Saigon - Cholon " (Région de Saigon - Cholon) with the organization below being households (quartier), equivalent total in provinces. The head of a household is called the Head of Household (Chef de quartier). The original name of Dakao land today is Household Land (land of households or land managed by households). In previous books and documents, the French had a phonetic transcription of the land of Dat Ho into Dakao. In fact, the name of Dakao is only widespread in Saigon from the 1950s and 1960s.

7. Thu Thiem

Most of the names for roads, bridges, wards and markets . in Saigon take the names of people with meritorious services to the country, the city or simply to the people of that area. It seems that Thu Thiem is not a name given to the formula above.

Previously, " player" was a noun to refer to a guard station along the river. Because it was quite popular in the past, "players" went into some current places such as Thu Duc, Thu Thiem, Librarian (Saigon), Thu Thua (Long An) or Thu Dau Mot (Binh Duong). Duc, Thiem, Ngu, and Thua are believed to be the names of officials who were sent to govern these rulers and have been in office for quite a long time, so their names have been attached to the workplace. As for Thu Dau Mot , in the old days, there was an oil tree that grew lonely.