At first I think it is not a good day
to visit the Independence Palace. It is blazing hot at 1:30 p.m. as Saigon has
just entered the “hotter” season. To reach the palace itself, visitors have to
walk a long way from the gate under the merciless sun.
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| The Independence Palace in present-day Ho Chi Minh City |
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| A version of the Tank 390, one of the two tanks that crashed through the gates of the Independence Palace on the morning of April 30, 1975, on display at the palace. Photo: Thuy Hang |
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| The conference hall at the palace |
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| The ministers' cabinet room in the palace. |
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| The banquet chamber in the palace |
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| The heliport on the rooftop of the palace |
And the front of the palace is messy.
It looks like a construction site. I guess they are preparing for celebrations
to mark the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. The Independence palace has been the
symbolic endgame that brought the Vietnam War to a close on April 30, 1975,
when two North Vietnamese Army tanks crashed through its gates.
But I am surprised to see a lot of
people, mostly foreign tourists, flocking to the palace in the heat.
The Vietnamese name for the palace is
“dinh Doc Lap” (Independence Palace) or “dinh Thong Nhat” (Reunification
Palace). In 1868 a residence was built on the site of the current palace for
the French governor-general of Cochinchina and gradually it expanded to become
the Norodom Palace. When the French departed, the palace became home to Ngo
Dinh Diem, the US-backed South Vietnamese president.
From the outside, the palace looks
stunning. Located on a vast piece of land, the white building stands out from
the blue sky above and the green grass in front. The grounds in front of the main
building are dominated by a large water fountain in the middle of the
meticulously manicured lawn.
On the right side of the entrance stand
the tanks Nos. 843 and 390, which crashed through the gates that April morning
40 years ago. Around the palace are tall trees that offer some relief from the
midday sun.
Though the palace is situated in Nam Ky
Khoi Nghia Street, one the most prime locations in the city, near some famous
spots such as the Saigon Central Post Office and the Saigon Notre Dame
Basilica, and the area around the palace itself is quite crowded and noisy, it
seems like a different world inside. The green space and the airy, quiet
atmosphere of the gardens lull me into a peaceful, comfortable feeling.
The main building has 1960s décor at
its finest. The rooms inside the palace are designed in a sophisticated manner,
perhaps at the behest of Diem and top government officials at that time.
The ground floor has meeting rooms,
while upstairs is a grand set of reception rooms. All the rooms are impressive,
a display of the lavish lifestyle of the South Vietnamese regime.
But the basement is more fascinating
with its telecommunications center, war room and warren of tunnels. Towards the
end are rooms where videos describe the palace and its history in Vietnamese,
English, French, Chinese and Japanese.
On the rooftop of the palace is a
heliport with a helicopter at the site. The palace was an “all in one”
building, being the official residence of President Diem and his family and
also the working place where diplomatic activities were undertaken and
military-related decisions were made.
Designed by French-trained architect
Ngo Viet Thu, the first Vietnamese to win Italy’s Grand prix de Rome, the
palace is said to have been created in harmony with fengshui principles.
The whole structure, with its blend of
modern and eastern architecture, symbolizes traditional philosophy and forms
the Chinese character “ji” meaning good or lucky. On its front, balconies on
the second and thirrd floors combine with the main entrance porch and two
wood-paneled columns to create the character “xing,” meaning prosperity.
According to fengshui beliefs, the
edifice is located in a dragon's head, and so it was also referred to as
Dragon's Head Palace.
But, ironically, all the fengshui did
not help the ill-fated South Vietnamese regime.
In 1962 Diem’s own air force bombed the
palace in a botched attempt to kill him. The president ordered a new residence
to be built on the same site, this time with a sizeable bomb shelter in the basement.
The work was completed in 1966, but Diem did not get to see his dream house as
he was killed by his own troops in 1963.
And the day that marked the fall of the
regime is still talked about over and over again when people visit the palace.
The palace receives more than 1,000
visitors each day, according to estimates.
The Independence Palace Ho Chi Minh City travel video:
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