Vietnam

Discover Vietnam

Fun Foods

Pho, Banh Mi, Goi Cuon, Com Tam, Bun Cha, Banh Xeo, Che

Somewhere under the jungles of Vietnam is a cave so enormous it has its own river, its own clouds, and its own forest growing inside it. It's called Son Doong, and it's the largest cave on Earth.

Some of its tunnels are so big you could fly a jumbo jet through them, or fit a 40-story skyscraper inside. Amazingly, a local man only stumbled upon it in 1990, and explorers didn't fully map it until 2009.

Vietnam is full of wonders like that, and its history is just as dramatic. This is a country that spent much of its past standing up to far larger powers.

Long ago, China ruled Vietnam for more than a thousand years. The Vietnamese never stopped resisting. One famous story tells of the Trung Sisters, two women who raised an army and briefly drove the Chinese out nearly 2,000 years ago.

Much later, in the 1800s, France took over and made Vietnam part of its empire. The French ran the country for decades until a leader named Ho Chi Minh led the fight to push them out. In 1954, the Vietnamese defeated the French for good.

But peace didn't come. The country was split in two: a communist North and a US-backed South. This led to the long and terrible Vietnam War, which Vietnamese people call the American War.

The United States sent more than half a million soldiers to help the South. After years of fighting, millions of Vietnamese had died, and it became one of the most painful chapters in both countries' histories.

In 1975, the North won, and Vietnam was finally united as one country again.

Today, Vietnam is peaceful, fast-growing, and a favorite place to visit. One thing you'll notice right away is the motorbikes, millions of them, zipping through the streets in rivers of traffic. Just crossing the road is an adventure.

For sights, take a boat through Ha Long Bay, where more than a thousand towering limestone islands rise straight out of emerald-green water. In Hanoi, catch a water puppet show, an 800-year-old art form where wooden puppets dance on a pool of water.

For food, slurp a steaming bowl of pho, a noodle soup with herbs and meat. Try goi cuon, fresh spring rolls wrapped in see-through rice paper.

And bite into a banh mi, a crunchy sandwich the Vietnamese made their own after the French brought the baguette.