Ho Chi Minh House on Stilt

Ho Chi Minh House on Stilt is one of the highlights in your Hanoi sightseeing. In 1954, the President of North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, ordered the construction of a delightful presidential residence, which, in contrast with the nearby extravagant Presidential Palace, a colonial building erected for the General Governor of Indochina, is hardly a mansion or a palace but rich in its unique character.

The house is in a corner of the Presidential Palace's gardens, surrounding by fruit trees, willows, hibiscus, flame trees, and frangipani. Fragrance and bird songs can be sensed when you start taking a look at this traditional wooden house set on stilts with a study and a bedroom upstairs and a meeting table on the ground floor together with a small pond in front of the house for fishing but without a toilet, which affects a simplicity that seems better suited to servants' quarters than the President of a country. Yet by the modest simple philosophy Ho Chi Minh showed his people that the country’s leader was feeling their pain and would get through with them. After his death the house was open for visitors yet some part of the rooms is barred to access.

Ho Chi Minh House on Stilt, Hanoi

Since the it’s part of the Ho Chi Minh Complex that covers One Pillar Pagoda and Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, there's no point missing this site where the hero of the country lived in a frugal lifestyle. Tran Quoc Pagoda, Temple of Literature, Old Quarter and Quan Thanh Temple are also prime tourist attractions to visit. Our 10-Day Best of Vietnam has it all!