People's Committee of Hồ Chí Minh City

This guide to the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City walks through the building's origins as the French Hotel de Ville, an ornate 1908 monument to liberty, equality and fraternity built by a colonial government that granted its Vietnamese subjects none of the three. You'll hear about architect Fernand Gardè's design, modeled on the Paris town hall, and the three allegorical women carved above its entrance. Listen for how Vietnamese newspapers of the day described the facade.