Are the Cu Chi tunnels worth visiting in your short time in Saigon? Absolutely! It is one of the best day trip options from Ho Chi Minh City, and makes for a great history lesson in combination with a visit to the War Remnants Museum. The purpose of this blog article is to serve as a complete Cu Chi tunnels guide for you. It has everything you need to know, from history, and facts to how to get there, what to eat and even includes some good travelers tip’s so your journey will be unforgettable. Read on…
A Brief History of the Cu Chi Tunnels + facts!
Located some 60 kilometers to the Northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, the Cu Chi tunnel network is an extensive labyrinth of underground tunnels stretching all the way to the Cambodian border. They were built over a period of some 25 years and initial construction began in 1948 by the Viet Minh during the war against the French. Back then, the tunnels were a means of communication between villages and to also helped the Vietnamese evade French soldiers scouting the area.
During the American War, the tunnels were extended over an area of approximately 250km and thus assumed huge strategic importance to the Viet Cong fighting troops and played an immense role in helping the Vietnamese troops win against the American insurgents. Not only was it home for thousands of Viet Cong guerrillas, but it was also a complicated structure consisting of numerous trenches, bunkers, booby traps, bomb shelters and an amazing air ventilation system. Soldiers cooked, ate, slept, worked, and even went to school in these tunnels as conflict raged above. Believe it or not, there were hospitals, theatres, schools, kitchens, all built into this extraordinary tunnel system. Cu Chi was also used as a base for sabotage teams and intelligence agents to infiltrate Saigon.
Fun (not so fun?) fact: The Viet Cong set up so many booby traps around entrances to the tunnels to avoid being found by American troops above ground. They actually caused 11% of all deaths related to the Vietnam war. To get around this, the Americans began using German Shepherd dogs to sniff out these traps, however the Vietcong were smart enough to prevent being sniffed out by these dogs too. Not only did the Viet Cong begin using American soap, but they also planted uniforms of captured American soldiers by these traps. The dogs thought these were friendly areas and so, many ended up getting killed or maimed by the traps that their handlers refused to continue using them.
It was said that if the Cu Chi Tunnels fell, the Vietnamese would have lost the war. But if they stood, they would win. They played a huge role in the Vietnamese wining the war for their independence.
Watch an interesting documentary on the Cu Chi tunnels to understand it more