Central Post Office

Why Central Post Office is special ?

Saigon Central Post Office (Vietnamese: Bưu điện Trung tâm Sài Gòn, French: Poste centrale de Saïgon) is a post office in the downtown Ho Chi Minh City, near Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica, the city's main church. The building was constructed when Vietnam was part of French Indochina in the early 20th century. It has a neoclassical architectural style. The structure was built between 1886 and 1891 by the French architect Gustave Eiffel; the same architect responsible for the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Today, the building is a tourist attraction and still a full functioning post office Exterior of the Main Post Office The facade outside of the post office, choral tone whitish with violet in cream color, have recorded the names and the faces of the characters and more representative of the time inventors. Among these names is the President of the United States Benjamin Franklin, the Italian inventor Alessandro Volta, the British physicist Michael Faraday, French mathematician André-Marie Ampère, Gay Lussac, Oerstedt, Ohm, Arago, Galvani, Foucault, Laplace. Together with the names and the faces, there are also some inscriptions, this was the tribute that he wanted to dedicate Eiffel these illustrious characters related to discoveries and advances in the field of electricity. Entering the Post office you are faced with a large portrait of Ho Chi Minh and along the side wall there are there are old French colonial maps the first of which titled ‘Lignes telegraphiques du Sud Vietnam et Cambodge 1936′ translating to ‘Telegraphic lines of Southern Vietnam and Cambodia 1892. And the second is titled‘Saigon et ses environs 1892′ Translating to ‘Sai Gon and its environment 1892′ If you are interested in sending a postcard the centre counter has plenty of postcard packs at fairly good prices, after you have purchased and filled in just head to one of the first few maned counters on the left side of the building to purchase a postage stamp.

What to explore at Central Post Office?

If you don't have a bundle of postcards to send to the relatives back home, you should still drop into Saigon Central Post Office to admire the interior. Check the working phone booths, and the beautiful, handpainted maps on either side of the interior walls that depict Saigon and the surrounding area in 1892, and the former telegraph lines of Cochin China. Souvenir stalls off either side of the entrance sell the usual memorabilia, including a large selection of fictional "Tintin in Vietnam" covers.

This is very much a working post office. You can send letters and parcels (don't wrap them up till you're at the counter), change money, buy stamps and books, and browse a good selection of collector coin and stamp sets. Across the street from Saigon Central Post Office lies Notre Dame Cathedral, so you can photograph both sights in the one visit.

How to get to Central Post Office?

- Take bus no 04 or 07 from center city to get there

- If you are in Ben Thanh market. Just go along the Le Thanh Ton st and Dong Khoi st. In the end of this street, you will reach place.

- Taxe taxi or ‘xe om’ to get there