One Day at the Saigon Zoo

Ho Chi Minh City’s Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens, established by the French in 1864, is one of the city’s oldest and greenest landmarks. While once a colonial retreat admired by some like English travel writer Norman Lewis in 1950, the zoo today serves as a bustling urban oasis amid Saigon’s rapid growth and relentless modernization. Strolling through the gardens on a lively Tết Sunday in 2025, Connla Stokes reflects on the zoo’s complex history — from its colonial-era elegance and wartime concerts to its current role as a family-friendly park filled with bumper cars and candy floss vendors.