Biên Hòa

Biên Hòa (Northern accent: listen, Southern accent: listen) is the capital city of Đồng Nai Province, Vietnam and part of the Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area and located to the northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, to which Biên Hòa is linked by Vietnam Highway 1. Classified as a class-1 provincial city, it is the sixth largest city in Vietnam by population.[1]

Biên Hòa
Thành phố Biên Hòa
Biên Hòa City
From left to right, from top to bottom: Trấn Biên Temple of Literature, Buddha Mau Buu Hoa shrine, Ghềnh bridge
Official seal of Biên Hòa
Biên Hòa is located in Vietnam
Biên Hòa
Biên Hòa
Location of in Vietnam
Coordinates: 10°57′N 106°49′E
Country Vietnam
ProvinceĐồng Nai
Area
  Total26,308 km2 (10,158 sq mi)
Population
 (2022)
  Total1,232,000
  Density4,182/km2 (10,830/sq mi)
ClimateAw

Geography

Topography

Biên Hòa spans 264 square kilometers of midland terrain in the West of Đồng Nai province. Most of the city lies East of the Đồng Nai River.

Biên Hòa shares borders with:[2]

Administrative divisions

Biên Hòa has 30 divisions (29 wards and 1 commune), include:[3]

Demographics

In 1989 the estimated population was 273,879. In 1999, the population was 435,400, and in 2009 it was 701,194.[4] In December 2012, the population of the city crossed the one million mark.[5]

The population in 2019 was 1,055,414,[6] and in 2021 it was 1,119,190.[7]

History

Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh temple in Cù Lao Phố.

Nguyễn dynasty

Drawing of Biên Hòa citadel in the Nguyễn dynasty

The capture of Biên Hòa on December 16, 1861, was an important allied victory in the Cochinchina Campaign (1858–62). This campaign, fought between the French and the Spanish on the one side and the Vietnamese (under the Nguyễn dynasty) on the other, began as a limited punitive expedition and ended as a French war of conquest. The war concluded with the establishment of the French colony of Cochinchina, a development that inaugurated nearly a century of French colonial dominance in Vietnam.

Republic of Vietnam

Biên Hòa grew into a major suburb of Saigon as the capital city of the Republic of (South) Vietnam grew. Following the First Indochina War, tens of thousands of refugees from the northern and central regions of Vietnama large portion of whom were Roman Catholicsresettled in Biên Hòa as part of Operation Passage to Freedom. During the Vietnam War, the United States Air Force operated Biên Hòa Air Base near the city. Mortar attacks on U.S. and ARVN targets were frequently staged from residential districts in Biên Hòa. Two of the better-known attacks took place during Tết of 1968 as well as 1969.[8]

Socialist Republic

Like most other areas of Vietnam, post-war Biên Hòa suffered a period of severe economic decline between 1975 and the second half of the 1980s. In part, because of its high concentration of former refugees and their descendants who had fled the communist government of North Vietnam in the mid-1950s, Biên Hòa was the site of small-scale resistance to the communist government in the months immediately following the fall of the Republic of Vietnam.

In the 1980s, the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam initiated the economic reform policy of Đổi Mới and Biên Hòa experienced an economic resurgence. Biên Hòa and the surrounding areas received large amounts of foreign investment capital, and the area rapidly industrialized.[9]

As of 2005, Biên Hòa is now an industrial center of southern Vietnam, and many factories and warehouses (often funded in collaboration with Japanese, Singaporean, American, Swiss and other foreign investors) operate in the area surrounding the city. Biên Hòa Sugar is located near the city.

With regard to entertainment, the city includes several amusement parks, nightclubs and restaurants lining the Đồng Nai River. Construction has increased rapidly (with many Western-style houses and villas under development), and the real estate market has experienced a series of boom cycles since the mid-1990s.[10]

Biên Hòa also is the location of the Biên Hòa Military Cemetery, a large national cemetery for fallen soldiers and military officials of the former Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). The cemetery today is now neglected by the current communist regime, and many sections of the cemetery are either vandalized, or demolished for the construction of various building projects. Most of the time there was no proper reburial for the skeletal remains, and this caused an outcry by overseas Vietnamese, most of whom came from the South.[11] The Vietnamese America Foundation, and its program called "The Returning Casualty", are attempting to restore the cemetery and excavate a nearby mass grave.[12]

At the end of 2015, the Prime Minister of Vietnam issued Decision No.2488/QD-TTg recognizing Biên Hòa as a class-1 provincial city.[13]

Economy

Biên Hòa is one of the centers of industry in southern Vietnam. There are six industrial zones:

  • Biên Hòa I Industrial Zone, 335 ha. There is a plan to convert it into an urban, commercial, and service area by the end of 2025.[14]
  • Biên Hòa II Industrial Zone, 365 ha
  • Amata Industrial Park, 674 ha. This is the first investment project of Amata Corporation in Vietnam.[15]
  • Long Bình Industrial Zone Development
  • Agtex Long Bình Industrial Park - AGTEX 28, 43 ha
  • Tam Phước Industrial Park, 323 ha

Sanyang Motor's Vietnam Manufacturing & Export Processing Co., Ltd. (VMEP) is located in Biên Hòa.

Transport

Education

Environment

As a result of the Viet Nam war, some areas around Bien Hoa Air Base were dioxin pollution. The authorities are trying to clean up these areas.[16]

Notable landmarks

Sister city

References

  1. "Biên Hòa chính thức trở thành đô thị loại I". Báo Đồng Nai điện tử.
  2. "Atlas Đồng Nai". Đồng Nai Province official website.
  3. "Sơ đồ tổ chức". UBND Thành phố Biên Hòa.
  4. http://www.gso.gov.vn/Modules/Doc_Download.aspx?DocID=12724
  5. Chào mừng Hội nghị hiệp hội các đô thị Việt Nam diễn ra tại thành phố Biên Hòa — Trang thông tin điện tử thành phố Biên Hòa Archived November 26, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  6. "Kết quả toàn bộ tổng điều tra dân số và nhà ở năm 2019" (PDF). Tổng cục Thống kê Việt Nam. p. 34.
  7. "Phát triển thành phố Biên Hòa, tỉnh Đồng Nai theo hướng hiện đại – xanh – thông minh". Báo Bộ Xây Dựng. 9 September 2022.
  8. Pike, Thomas F., Operations & Intelligence, III Corps Reporting: Tet 1969, 2016, ISBN 978-1-534-79903-5, pp 91-103.
  9. "Kỷ niệm 320 năm hình thành và phát triển Biên Hòa - Ðồng Nai". Nhân Dân Newspaper. 28 December 2018.
  10. "Bất động sản Biên Hoà bùng nổ trong năm 2018". Tuổi Trẻ Newspaper. 16 March 2018.
  11. "The Returning Casualty Blog » Bien Hoa Cemetery: The Last of Its Kind in Vietnam". Vietremains.org. 2009-01-07. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
  12. Excavations of Burial Sites at Vietnamese Re-Education Camps by The Returning Casualty, Julie Martin, MSc in Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology candidate, Cranfield University UK, from south-eastasianarchaeology.com
  13. "Quyết định 2488/QĐ-TTg năm 2015 về việc công nhận thành phố Biên Hòa là đô thị loại I trực thuộc tỉnh Đồng Nai do Thủ tướng Chính phủ ban hành". Thư viện Pháp luật.
  14. "Bien Hoa 1 Industrial Park to be converted into urban area after 12 years of delay". VnEconomy. 30 December 2021.
  15. "Amata to build two more industrial-urban complexes in Vietnam". Vietnamnet.
  16. "Vietnam, US finish first part of dioxin cleanup at Bien Hoa airbase". VNExpress.
  17. "Trấn Biên Temple recognised". Việt Nam News. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  18. "Work starts on restoration of ancient citadel in Dong Nai". Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
  19. "Cầu Rạch Cát (Rach Cat Bridge)". HistoricBridges.org. November 29, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  20. "자매도시". gimhae.go.kr (in Korean). Gimhae. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
  21. "TP.Biên Hòa và TP.Pakse tăng cường hợp tác hữu nghị (English: Bien Hoa and Pakse strengthen friendship cooperation)". Đồng Nai Newspaper. Retrieved August 16, 2022.

10°57′N 106°49′E


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.