Been There – Ho Chi Minh

Here’s another mug from the pair that has been revealed recently by Starbucks Vietnam. Been There – Ho Chi Minh brought some controversy in the comments below the official news post of this release. It seems that many people would prefer Saigon over Ho Chi Minh for the name of the mug. There could be a couple of reasons for that. The largest city in Vietnam got its current official name, Ho Chi Minh City in 1976 when then Saigon was merged with the surrounding suburbs. The new name was supposed to commemorate the name of Ho Chi Minh, the communist revolutionary leader who is credited with uniting the country, and to celebrate the reunification of North and South at the end of the Vietnam War. The change was applied quite some time ago, but from what I understand, Saigon is still commonly used to refer to the “District 1” (business) area, or more specifically, the Bến Thành market area, while Ho Chi Minh City is the official name of the whole city.