President Ho Chi Minh’s Residence

In a large garden of trees, lie a park, at the back of the Presidential Palace, there is nice gravel covered road with mango trees on both sides, which leads to a small simple house-on-stilts. The house has a hibiscus fence and an “arched” gate made of trees. There, visitors can see two coconut trees: one was presented by the overseas Vietnamese in Thailand and the other, double-trunk, by the population of (former) Vĩnh Phú province. This is where President Hồ Chí Minh lived and worked from 17th May 1958 till he passed away.

The perfume of jasmine and dog-rose plants in the garden in front of the house is pervasive. At the back is a garden of fruit trees. The luxuriant star- apple tree presented to the President by his Southern compatriots in 1954 stands between two lines of Hải Dương orange trees bearing plenty of fruit. Hundreds of species of valuable trees of more than 30 families supplied by the (former) Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Forestry and different localities give the site some welcome shade. They include local specialties: grape fruit from Phúc Trạch, Thanh Hóa, Biên Hòa and Mê Linh; orange from Xuân Mai, Vân Du, Xã Đoài, Sông Con, mandarine from Hương Cần and Lý Nhân; apple from Thiện Phiến, Ngọc Hồ; twin-apricot from Đồng Mỹ; persimmon from Tiên Điền, etc.

There are also species imported from foreign countries, such as the 11 ngâu flower trees growing near the house, the 5 bald cypress trees found around the pond, the 26 areca trees imported from the Caribbean, and some special kinds of bamboo, etc.

President Ho Chi Minh’s Residence

The ground-floor of the house-on-stilts is where President HỒ met with the Politburo. There are 12 chaừs around a large table, three telephones and a soldier’s iron helmet that the President used to wear throughout the us war of destruction against North Viet Nam. There are two small rooms upstairs: one was used as cabinet and one bedroom. A single wooden bed occupies half of the bedroom. Next to it is a small wooden table, where the book The Resistance War against the Yuans is placed. At the door of the house there is a bronze bell which was used to notify of the arrival of a guest at the house.

The President’s personal belongings, among other things, include two fans: one made of a paper and the other palm leaves; a small thermos, a bottle of drinking water, a glass, an anti-mosquito bamboo brush, a radio presented to him by the overseas Vietnamese in Thailand, an electric fan presented by the Japanese Communist Party.

From the house-on-stilts, you can see a fish raising pond. When you clap your hands, fish emerge to the surface of water.

Dozens of varieties of beautiful orchid are hung on terminally trees (shade tree), blossoming throughout the year.