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Nhà Bè nước chảy chia hai · The district named after a raft that once tied kitchens together on the river

Nhà Bè

"Nhà Bè" means, roughly, "raft house" — and unlike most place names on this site, this one comes from an actual object: a cluster of bamboo rafts, tied together on the water, that gave travelers somewhere to cook a meal before the district existed at all.

History

Nhà Bè's history is a story of a river crossing that grew into a trading post, then a district, then — repeatedly — gave away pieces of itself to its neighbors.

Spring 1698

Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh formally establishes Gia Định prefecture on behalf of the Nguyễn lords; the hamlets that will become Nhà Bè fall under Tân Bình district, Phiên Trấn dinh, from this point forward.

First half of the 18th century

As Nguyễn-era land clearance intensifies across the region, the name "Nhà Bè" begins to circulate — see Anecdotes, below, for the story behind it.

1 January 1911

French colonial authorities formally place the name on the map, dividing Gia Định province into four districts: Hóc Môn, Thủ Đức, Gò Vấp and Nhà Bè. At this stage Nhà Bè district is large, comprising four cantons — Bình Trị Hạ, Dương Hòa Hạ, An Thít and Cần Giờ — stretching along the boundary between the Nhà Bè and Lòng Tàu rivers.

1947

The An Thít and Cần Giờ cantons are separated from Nhà Bè district and folded into Vũng Tàu province, leaving Nhà Bè with just the Bình Trị Hạ and Dương Hòa Hạ cantons — roughly the district's territory as it existed before 1975.

1975

Nhà Bè becomes a district of Ho Chi Minh City following reunification.

17 July 1986

Nhà Bè township, the district's administrative seat, is formally established from land cut out of Phú Mỹ and Phú Xuân communes.

1997

Several communes are cut from Nhà Bè district to help form the newly created District 7 — the second time in the district's history that it has given up territory to a neighboring administrative unit, echoing the 1947 loss of An Thít and Cần Giờ.

2025

A citywide ward reform merges Nhà Bè township with the communes of Phú Xuân, Phước Kiển and Phước Lộc into a single new commune named Nhà Bè, part of a broader restructuring across Ho Chi Minh City.

A district that gave away half its own land

Nhà Bè's borders have shrunk twice in its administrative history, both times to build up a neighboring district rather than through any loss of the land itself.

1947 — An Thít and Cần Giờ cantons

Given to Vũng Tàu province

The coastal southern half of the original 1911 district was separated off, eventually becoming part of what is now Cần Giờ district under Ho Chi Minh City rather than Nhà Bè.

1997 — Several northern communes

Given to form District 7

As Ho Chi Minh City urbanized rapidly through the 1990s, part of Nhà Bè's northern territory was carved off to help establish District 7, a newer, denser urban district that borders Nhà Bè to this day.

Đình Phú Xuân, a communal house by the canal

Huỳnh Tấn Phát street, Nhà Bè township, near Rạch Đôi canal

Established in 1900, this communal house sits on a roughly 770 m² plot beside Rạch Đôi canal and today carries official status as a city-level architectural heritage site, so designated in 2012. A reinforced-concrete triple gate marked with the temple's name in ceramic characters leads to a courtyard centered on a screen wall dedicated to the Tiger spirit and an altar to the Farmer God, with the temple's principal deity, the tutelary spirit of the locality, held in the place of honor inside. More than a century of gilded, lacquered wooden plaques and parallel scrolls survive inside, carved with cloud, vine and auspicious-object motifs typical of Southern Vietnamese communal-house craftsmanship.

Places to discover

Chùa Pháp Võ, the oldest pagoda in Nhà Bè

28/1, alley 2174 Huỳnh Tấn Phát street, Phú Xuân area

More than two centuries old, this is the oldest surviving pagoda in the district, built with solid ironwood (gỗ lim) columns and beams and decorated with finely carved reliefs depicting scenes from the Buddha's life — a striking contrast to the newer, larger temples that have sprung up elsewhere in Nhà Bè in recent decades.

The Bình Khánh river crossing, where the water splits in two

Bình Khánh ferry crossing, southern edge of the district

This is the literal site of the folk verse that gives Nhà Bè part of its identity — "Nhà Bè nước chảy chia hai," "at Nhà Bè the water flows apart in two" — where the river visibly forks into the Lòng Tàu and Soài Rạp branches on its way to the sea. The car ferry crossing here, linking Nhà Bè to Cần Giờ, offers a rare unobstructed view of the split described in the verse.

One story the guidebooks skim past

The rafts that gave a district its name

According to Trịnh Hoài Đức's 19th-century chronicle Gia Định thành thông chí, this stretch of river once had no inns, no market stalls, nothing at all for boats that missed the tide and needed somewhere to wait it out. A man named Võ Thủ Hoằng — remembered locally as Thủ Huồng — came up with a simple fix: he cut bamboo and lashed it into rafts, anchored on the river, giving passing boat crews a place to cook and rest without leaving their vessels. Others followed his example, until two or three dozen rafts clustered together as an informal trading post, busy enough that the stretch of river became known simply as "Nhà Bè" — raft house. The name entered popular use long before it became an official place name in 1911, and outlived every administrative reshuffling the district has gone through since — including the folk verse "Nhà Bè nước chảy chia hai, ai về Gia Định, Đồng Nai thì về," still recited today at the very spot where the river visibly splits in two.

Four addresses, from Trà Vinh-style noodles to duck porridge

Bánh canh Bến Có

~35,000–60,000 VND

79 Nguyễn Hữu Thọ street, Phước Kiển area

A well-known outpost of Trà Vinh's famous thick rice noodle soup, transplanted to Nhà Bè and popular enough that the name has become a local landmark in its own right.

Cháo vịt Út Be

~40,000–200,000 VND

237 ĐH34 road, Phước Kiển area

A long-running duck porridge specialist, known for tender, lean duck meat and a water-spinach salad made with hand-crushed rather than shredded stems.

Bánh xèo rau rừng Bằng Lăng

~30,000–40,000 VND

54C Lê Văn Lương street, Phước Kiển area

Crispy savory pancakes served with a generous plate of wild forest herbs, a Southern Vietnamese classic pairing done well enough here to draw a steady local crowd.

Riverside seafood restaurants

~150,000–400,000 VND

Along Lê Văn Lương and Nguyễn Hữu Thọ streets, Phước Kiển area

A cluster of garden-style seafood restaurants — grilled prawns, tamarind crab, seafood hotpot — has grown up along these two streets, popular for weekend group dinners.

Getting there

Nhà Bè sits just south of District 7, typically a 20-30 minute scooter or taxi ride from central Saigon. The Bình Khánh ferry crossing, at the district's southern tip, connects onward to Cần Giờ across the river.

Most of the district's restaurants and sights cluster along Lê Văn Lương and Nguyễn Hữu Thọ streets, both well served by scooter or car.

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