Saigon's culture lives in French villas hung with lacquer panels, in Chợ Lớn pagodas built by Cantonese guilds, and in cải lương theatres where a 100-year-old opera form still sells out. Three days of art, architecture and living ritual.
Three 1930s buildings of the Hứa Bổn Hòa family — Saigon's first passenger lift, stained glass and tiled courtyards. Building 1 holds modern Vietnamese lacquer and silk; Building 2, ancient Champa and Óc Eo sculpture. Open 8:00–17:00 daily.
A first-floor 1920s colonial shophouse stripped to concrete and steel, up a scruffy stairwell above a street of jewellers. Vietnam's original specialty roaster; siphon and cold brew of Đà Lạt and Cầu Đất beans. Open 8:00–22:00.
Vietnam's most serious contemporary gallery since 2003, showing Tiffany Chung, Ha Manh Thang and Nguyễn Thái Tuấn. White-cube rooms in a Đa Kao side street; the programme runs to installation and video, not tourist silk. Tue–Sat 10:00–19:00.
An 1890 neoclassical palace by Alfred Foulhoux — Ionic columns, a Greek-goddess pediment, sweeping twin staircases. Beneath it, the bunker where President Diệm hid before his 1963 assassination. Open 7:30–17:00.
Designer Sĩ Hoàng's garden museum of the national dress: a wooden nhà rường house holding áo dài from the 18th-century áo ngũ thân to garments worn by writers and scientists. Lotus ponds, an hour east of the centre. 8:30–17:30.
A 1929 Indochinese-style pavilion by Auguste Delaval with an octagonal tower. Đông Sơn bronze drums, Champa stone deities, Óc Eo gold and a Nguyễn-dynasty mummy. Water-puppet shows run in the small on-site theatre. Closed Mondays.
Múa rối nước — a 1,000-year-old Red River Delta form performed waist-deep behind a bamboo screen, with a live đàn bầu and đàn nhị ensemble. Shows around 17:00 and 18:30, about 50 minutes, in a small hall by Tao Đàn Park.
Eugène Ferret's 1900 flamboyant-Baroque hall, 500 seats, restored to its original façade sculpture in 1995. Home of the HBSO orchestra and the À Ố Làng Phố bamboo circus, which stages village life with 100 bamboo poles.
Built by Cantonese merchants around 1760 for the sea goddess Mazu. The roof ridges carry Thạch Loan ceramic dioramas of whole opera scenes; inside, coils of incense burn overhead for weeks. Open 6:00–17:30.
The 1928 wholesale market funded by Chinese philanthropist Quách Đàm, built around a clock tower and open courtyard shrine. Restored in 2018. The interior food court serves hủ tiếu Nam Vang and bánh canh cua to traders, not tourists.
A 1960s civil-servant housing block whose flats are now independent bookshops, vinyl bars and studio cafés stacked nine floors high. The original caged lift still runs at 3,000 VND a ride; the stairwell is the better route.
A 1909 Cantonese temple to the Taoist Jade Emperor, dense with carved teak panels, papier-mâché generals and the Hall of Ten Hells. A turtle pond fills the courtyard. Obama visited in 2016. Open until 18:00.