ViCo SmartTour x Urbanist Travel: A Cho Lon Story

About ViCo SmartTour

ViCo SmartTour is a series of experience-based gatherings for Vietnam’s Community of Changemakers (ViCo). Each month, ViCo takes our community and guests to visit a partner business who has a story around innovation, sustainability and collaboration – the values we care about as much as the business itself. Each SmartTour is as much about human connection as it is about learning something new from the inspiring stories our trusted partners have to share.

About A Cho Lon Story

Long inhabited by người Hoa (ethnic Chinese), who established an economic center along the banks of the Saigon River more than 200 years ago, Cho Lon had its own city until quite recently.

The neighborhood's economic strength has led to the construction of majestic colonial and modernist buildings, especially shophouses. We will stroll around Cho Lon's streets throughout this tour to see these architectural treasures.

We will visit one of the city's oldest coffee businesses, where the family has been roasting coffee for more than 70 years, to learn more about the neighborhood's human past in addition to its architectural features.

The journey concludes at Thien Hau Pagoda, one of Saigon's oldest structures, after a visit to the University of Medicine, a modernist masterpiece.

Official Route for Cho Lon Story (walking tour)

Stop number - Location - Architectural focus

1 - Binh Tay Market - Indochine & Chinese influence

2 - St Francis Xavier Church (Note: Transfer by van from Binh Tay Market to the church.) - Combining European Gothic architecture with Chinese influence. (exterior visit only)

3 - Shophouse 931 Nguyen Trai - Local interpretation of Modernism

4 - Shophouse 828 Nguyen Trai - Local interpretation of Modernism

5 - Phung Hung Market - Balu coffee shop - Rest, informal discussion & Unique brew coffee

6 - Thien Hau Pagoda - Rest & informal discussion

7 - University of Medicine & Pharmacy HCMC - Modernism brise-soleil facade & climate-responsive design