Cu Chi Tunnels

Cu Chi Tunnels of Saigon is awarded as one of the TOP 7 most adventurous places in Southeast Asia and one of the TOP 12 most interesting underground sights in the world. The decades-old tunnel network is like an advanced secret maze, where tourists can see the turbulent history of Vietnam as though they are going back to the war. Cu Chi's climate is also something to take into consideration prior to your visit. Due to the tropical weather, Cu Chi experiences two different seasons: the rainy season (May to October) and the dry season. The Cu Chi Tunnels, a huge network of underground tunnels, were first built beneath the jungle landscape, linking tunnels between hamlets and communes during the Indochina war (1945-1954) against French colonial powers. They were used as hideouts for Vietnam revolutionary soldiers to travel between areas discreetly and avoid French scouts. Though the distance is far from the lively center, this outlying district is worth a visit for its various tourist attractions along with the tunnel systems, including fresh fruit gardens, Cu Chi Water Park, and Fosaco eco-village. The Cu Chi Tunnels are a system of underground tunnels found in Tan Phu Trung and Phuoc Vinh An communes, Cu Chi district. They were initially only organized short routes employed to conceal resistance units, documents and arms, and facilitate communication, each of which was constructed independently by a village in these communes. In response to the requirement for communication among villages, these routes were subsequently interconnected, creating a rich network. By 1965, around 200 km of tunnels and 500 km of the surrounding combat trenches were excavated and transformed into a three-story system of crisscrossing tunnels. Inside the tunnels are functional areas such as dining rooms, meeting rooms, first-aid rooms, film screening rooms, and kitchens where Hoang Cam stoves (a stove that can diffuse and dissipate smoke from cooking) were used. The network has exits open to the Saigon River and a secretly covered ventilation system.