2 Best Sights in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The Cantonese community built this structure—the finest Chinese pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City—in 1909. A mixture of Taoist, Buddhist, and ethnic myths provides the sources for the small pagoda's multitude of statues and carvings, incorporating just about everything from the King of Hell to a Buddha of the Future. Slowly strolling around the interior to view them may be preferable to attempting to decipher the significance of each of the numerous, distinct deities. Take a moment to note the main altar, the side panel's depiction of hell, and, in the side room, the miniature female figures representing the range of human qualities. There are usually a few vendors at the entrance selling turtles. Buddhists believe that releasing these turtles into the pagoda's turtle pond will generate merit.

Vivid statues and colorful floral offerings at this Hindu temple create a microcosm of India in the streets of Saigon. Before the temple was returned to the Hindu community in the early 1990s, the government used it as a factory for making joss sticks (incense) and for processing dried fish. Today it serves a small congregation of Tamil Hindus, but some Vietnamese and Chinese locals also revere it as a holy space.