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Quang Trung Software Park · From betel-garden hamlets to Vietnam's first tech park

District 12

One of the youngest districts on this site, District 12 was farmland under Hóc Môn district until 1997. Its most unusual landmark spent decades as a French military training ground and a communist-army garrison before becoming, almost by accident, the birthplace of Vietnam's software industry.

History

District 12's history is inseparable from Hóc Môn's — for most of its existence, this land wasn't a district of Saigon at all, but a rural fringe of it.

Pre-1975

The land that becomes District 12 is part of the historic region known as "18 thôn Vườn Trầu" — the eighteen betel-garden hamlets of Hóc Môn and Bà Điểm — long remembered in Vietnamese history as the birthplace of the 1940 Nam Kỳ uprising against French colonial rule.

25 December 1945

The Gia Định resistance committee establishes the An Phú Đông war zone on this land, a base positioned unusually close to central Saigon itself — see Anecdotes, below.

1953

French colonial authorities build a military training center at Quán Tre, then part of Hóc Môn district, to train Vietnamese recruits for the State of Vietnam's armed forces — see Places to discover, below, for what this land eventually became.

1947

Two villages, Hanh Phú and An Lộc, merge to form An Phú Đông commune, one of the areas that will later make up District 12.

After 1975

The Quán Tre training grounds remain under military control, garrisoned by the Gia Định Regiment, until 1985.

6 January 1997

The government issues Decree 03-CP, formally establishing District 12 by separating five full communes — An Phú Đông, Đông Hưng Thuận, Tân Thới Hiệp, Tân Thới Nhất and Thạnh Lộc — plus parts of two more, Tân Chánh Hiệp and Trung Mỹ Tây, from rural Hóc Môn district.

2000–2001

The former military and exhibition grounds at Quán Tre are redeveloped into Quang Trung Software Park, Vietnam's first dedicated software industry park; see Anecdotes, below.

2006

Tân Hưng Thuận ward is created from part of Đông Hưng Thuận, bringing the district to eleven wards.

2025

A citywide ward reform merges several of District 12's wards, including folding Thạnh Lộc into An Phú Đông, as part of a broader restructuring across the city.

Seven communes, one new district

Unlike districts carved from the old French-era city grid, District 12 was assembled directly from rural communes — its founding names still describe farmland-turned-neighborhoods rather than colonial-era wards.

Five full communes

An Phú Đông, Đông Hưng Thuận, Tân Thới Hiệp, Tân Thới Nhất, Thạnh Lộc

These five communes transferred to the new district in their entirety in 1997, each carrying its rural-era name forward largely unchanged — a contrast with the renamed, renumbered wards common in Saigon's older inner districts.

Two split communes

Tân Chánh Hiệp, Trung Mỹ Tây

Only portions of these two communes were absorbed into District 12, their remaining territory staying under Hóc Môn — a reminder that the 1997 boundary was drawn through existing rural communities rather than along any pre-existing line.

Đình Hanh Phú, a communal house that outlasted two wars

An Phú Đông ward

Named for one of the two villages that merged in 1947 to form An Phú Đông, this communal house predates the modern district by decades and today holds official status as a city-level historical relic. Local accounts describe it as a rare surviving structure that witnessed both the anti-French resistance of the 1940s and the war that followed — a modest wooden building whose age is easy to overlook next to District 12's newer landmarks, but which anchors the neighborhood's identity more than any of them.

Places to discover

Quang Trung Software Park

Tô Ký street / Trung Mỹ Tây ward

Vietnam's first and largest dedicated software park is open to walk through, with cafes, tree-lined avenues and a campus feel that has nothing in common with the site's earlier lives as a French military training ground and then a communist-army garrison — see Anecdotes, below, for the full layered history. Today it hosts well over a hundred tech companies and tens of thousands of workers and students, a genuinely unusual thing to find this far from central Saigon.

The riverside garden restaurants of Vườn Lài street

Vườn Lài street, An Phú Đông ward

A cluster of countryside-style garden restaurants lines the Sài Gòn river here, several with fishing ponds, thatched-roof seating areas and river views that feel far removed from the district's tech-park side. It's a genuinely green, unhurried stretch of the city, popular with families on weekends rather than with tourists.

Two stories the guidebooks skim past

A resistance base built almost within sight of the city

Most wartime resistance bases in the Saigon region were established well outside the city, in terrain that was hard to reach and easy to defend. An Phú Đông war zone, established on 25 December 1945 by the Gia Định resistance committee, broke that pattern — positioned unusually close to central Saigon itself. Throughout thirty years of conflict, the An Phú Đông, Thạnh Lộc and Thạnh Xuân area endured repeated bombardment as contested ground, remembered locally today for the resistance base nicknamed Vườn Cau Đỏ, "the red areca garden," in nearby Thạnh Lộc.

From a French training camp to Vietnam's first software park

Before 1953, this land was simply known as Quán Tre, a rural corner of Hóc Môn district. That year, French colonial authorities built a military training center here to prepare Vietnamese recruits for the State of Vietnam's armed forces. After reunification in 1975, the site remained under military control, garrisoned by the Gia Định Regiment until 1985, when city leadership repurposed part of it as the Quang Trung Exhibition and Fair Center — Vietnam's first professional trade-fair venue. In December 1999, city Party leadership floated a new idea: converting the aging fairground into a software park. Construction began in October 2000, and by March 2001, Quang Trung Software Park was open for business — a stretch of land that went from French barracks to army garrison to trade fair to tech hub in under fifty years, with barely a pause between chapters.

Four addresses, mostly riverside and garden-style

Ẩm Thực Sân Vườn Xưa

~150,000–350,000 VND

369/1E Nguyễn Thị Nhuần street, An Phú Đông

A garden restaurant serving countryside-style Vietnamese dishes in a leafy, open-air setting — one of the district's better-reviewed spots for a relaxed family meal.

Nhà hàng sinh thái Vườn Thạnh Lộc

~150,000–400,000 VND

Thạnh Lộc ward

A large eco-garden restaurant complex with a swimming pool, a fishing pond and a play area alongside its menu of Vietnamese countryside dishes — built for a full weekend outing rather than a quick meal.

Hoa Nắng Bên Sông

~150,000–350,000 VND

Vườn Lài street, An Phú Đông

Riverside dining with a menu built around Singapore-style frog porridge, salt-baked cá lăng (a Mekong catfish) and field-crab hot pot — one of several restaurants along this stretch of the Sài Gòn river.

Thanh Trúc Quán

~100,000–250,000 VND

29 Nguyễn Thị Búp street, Hiệp Thành

A straightforward neighborhood favorite popular with local diners, further from the river-facing garden restaurants but well regarded in its own right.

Getting there

District 12 sits northwest of central Saigon, bordering Gò Vấp, Tân Bình, Tân Phú and Bình Tân, with the Sài Gòn river forming its eastern edge. It's typically a 20-30 minute scooter or taxi ride from District 1, longer than most other districts covered on this site.

Quang Trung Software Park and the Vườn Lài riverside restaurants sit on opposite sides of the district; a visit to both in one trip is possible but works best by scooter or car rather than on foot.

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