Top 10 Vietnam facts

Nguyen. Approximately forty percent of Vietnamese people have this surname. Many events in Vietnamese history contributed to the name's prominence. The Nguyễn Dynasty awarded many people the surname Nguyễn during their rule, and many criminals also changed their surname to Nguyễn to avoid prosecution.

4. Words "four" and "Death" have very similar pronunciation in Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese. In East Asia many buildings do not have a 4th floor. Some high-rise residential buildings omit all floor numbers with "4", e.g., 4, 14, 24, 34 and all 40–49 floors.

Saigon. Immediately after the communist takeover of South Vietnam in 1975, a provisional government renamed the city after Ho Chi Minh. Even today, however, the informal name of Sai Gon remains in daily speech both domestically and internationally.

Ho Chi Minh City . The four largest cities in Vietnam are Ho Chi Minh City (8.2 million), Ha Noi (7.4 million), Hai Phong (1.9 million) and Can Tho (1.2 million).

Folk beliefs. Most of the Vietnemese (around 45%) follows traditional folk beliefs. The other popular religions are Buddhism (around 16%) and Catholicism (around 8%). Many of Vietnamese consider themselves to be atheist (around 30%).

At point 1. Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam. Under the name Saigon, it was the capital of the French colony of Cochin-china and later of the independent republic of South Vietnam from 1955–75.

Vietnam. After the French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in western Tonkin in 1954, the communist nation of North Vietnam was formed, consisting of Tonkin and northern Annam. Located in the fertile delta area of the Red River, Tonkin is rich in rice production.

Red River. The waters of river are indeed reddish because of the large amounts of red silt.

South China Sea is regarded as the most dangerous point of potential conflict in East Asia. The Spratly Islands, located in the middle of the sea, are disputed between Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

Hanoi. The Flag Tower of Hanoi (Vietnamese: Cột cờ Hà Nội) is a tower in Hanoi, Vietnam, which is one of the symbols of the city and once a part of the Hanoi Citadel, a World Heritage Site. Its height is 33.4 m. The tower was built in 1812 during the Nguyen dynasty as an observation post to the Hanoi Citadel. It is now located in the Vietnam Military History Museum