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Địa đạo Phú Thọ Hòa · A tunnel network hand-dug under what is now a shopping district

Tân Phú

Tân Phú is a compound name and a compound place — stitched together in 2003 from two former communes of Tân Bình district. Beneath its malls and apartment towers runs one of the first tunnel networks ever dug on the edge of wartime Saigon.

History

Tân Phú's administrative history is short — barely two decades as an independent district — but the land itself carries a much older story.

11 December 1965

Under the Republic of Vietnam, Tân Phú commune is established within Tân Bình district, formed from land cut from two neighboring communes, Tân Sơn Nhì and Phú Thọ Hòa.

1947–1948

Well before the commune bears its name, residents of Phú Thọ Hòa begin digging a network of tunnels and communication trenches on this land as part of the anti-French resistance; see Anecdotes, below.

1988

Tân Bình district, which by now includes the Tân Phú area, is reorganized from 26 wards down to 20.

1996

The Phú Thọ Hòa tunnel network is recognized as a national historical relic, its surviving sections preserved as a memorial site.

5 November 2003

The government issues Decree No. 130/2003/NĐ-CP, splitting Tân Bình district to create Tân Phú district: the new district absorbs wards 16 through 20 in full, plus parts of wards 14 and 15, giving it an initial population of roughly 310,000 against Tân Bình's remaining 430,000.

2003–2020

Tân Phú urbanizes rapidly, its former farmland increasingly built over with apartment blocks and shopping centers; by 2024 its population reaches nearly 585,000 packed into just under 16 square kilometers, among the densest districts in the city.

2025

Tân Phú district is dissolved as part of a citywide ward reform, its wards merged and redistributed alongside a broader restructuring across Ho Chi Minh City.

A name built from two villages

Unlike numbered districts, Tân Phú's very name is a piece of local history — and its founding wards still trace the shape of the two communes it grew from.

Tân Sơn Nhì

The district's eastern half

One of the two original communes carved into the new district, Tân Sơn Nhì's name lives on today as one of Tân Phú's eleven founding wards.

Phú Thọ Hòa

The district's western half, and the source of its tunnels

The second founding commune, also preserved as a ward name, gave its name to the resistance-era tunnel network described below — long before either commune had heard the name "Tân Phú."

Đình Phú Thạch, built by three families

111 Trần Quang Cơ street, Phú Thạnh ward

Built in 1812, this communal house is one of the oldest structures standing in Tân Phú, older than every ward name attached to the modern district. Local accounts describe it as a gathering point for three founding families — surnamed Lê, Trần and Nguyễn — who settled this stretch of land together, and it continues to serve as a place where their descendants remember the area's earliest settlers rather than any of its more recent chapters.

Places to discover

The Phú Thọ Hòa tunnels

139 Phú Thọ Hòa street, Phú Thọ Hòa ward

Dug by hand starting in 1947–48, this was one of the first tunnel networks built on the edge of wartime Saigon — more than a kilometer of hand-carved passage across roughly 1.5 hectares, predating the far more famous tunnels of Củ Chi by years. Preserved today as a national historical site shaded by bamboo groves, visitors can walk sections of the original L-shaped communication trenches and see tools, weapons and documents from the period on display.

One story the guidebooks skim past

A tunnel network born from anger at a burned harvest

By most local accounts, the Phú Thọ Hòa tunnels grew directly out of residents' outrage at French forces' scorched-earth tactics in the surrounding countryside. A resistance committee was formed at Đình Lộc Hòa to organize the digging, judging that the fight against colonial forces would be long and difficult and that the local population needed a way to shelter, hide and strike back without abandoning their own land. What began as communication trenches deepened into a proper tunnel system, used to shelter fighters and stage attacks throughout the war against the French and, later, adapted for use again during the war against the United States. A 1966 raid damaged sections of the trench network, but enough survived — and was later restored — to be recognized as a national historical relic in 1996, thirty years after that raid and roughly half a century after the first shovel went into the ground.

Four addresses, a taste of central Vietnam

Bún bò Huế Sông Hương

~50,000–80,000 VND

Gò Dầu street

Tân Phú and neighboring Tân Bình hold one of the city's largest communities of migrants from central Vietnam, and this long-running spot is where many of them go for spicy Huế-style beef noodle soup that tastes like home.

Bánh xèo miền Trung

~30,000–60,000 VND

38 Thoại Ngọc Hầu street, Hòa Thạnh ward

A humble roadside stall serving central-Vietnamese-style savory pancakes — smaller and crispier than their southern cousins — that draws a steady stream of regulars despite its no-frills setup.

Manson Park Food Garden

~150,000–350,000 VND

2 Đô Đốc Long street

A large open-air garden restaurant known for seafood fried rice and salt-and-chili-grilled ribs, popular for bigger group gatherings.

Nhà hàng Hòn Rơm

~50,000–250,000 VND

373 Nguyễn Sơn street, Phú Thạnh ward

A seafood and hotpot restaurant built around an old-fashioned, rustic interior, with a broad menu that draws family groups on weekends.

Getting there

Tân Phú sits west of central Saigon, bordering Tân Bình, District 6, District 11, District 12 and Bình Tân, typically a 15-20 minute scooter or taxi ride from District 1.

The Phú Thọ Hòa tunnels are best visited in the morning, when the bamboo-shaded grounds are coolest and least crowded.

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