Today Ho Chi Minh City is very much the heart of Vietnamese business and entrepreneurs. Incomes here are typically twice that of Hanoi and the city’s skyline is rapidly changing, reflecting the sharp influx of foreign trade within the last decade. And yet for all this modernity, the city still retains its connections to the past, particularly so in Cholon, Saigon’s Chinatown. Here dozens of elegant temples and pagodas can be seen. The French too left their mark here – the city has many street cafes and patisseries where fresh croissants can be purchased The Cu Chi Tunnels were pivotal to the Communist’s victory over the Americans and the South Vietnamese Armies as they allowed the Viet Cong to control a large rural area around Saigon. At its height, the tunnel system, parts of which were several levels deep, stretched over 200kms from Saigon to the Cambodian border