The Ho Chi Minh Museum, also known as the Bao Tang Ho Chi Minh, is a museum dedicated to the life of Vietnamese independence leader Ho Chi Minh which is located in Hanoi near to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.
Entrance to the Ho Chi Minh MuseumThe Ho Chi Minh Museum is open from 08:00 to 12:00 every day of the week and from 14:00 to 16:30 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Admission for foreigners costs 10,000 VND.
About the Ho Chi Minh Museum
A visit to the Ho Chi Minh Museum is easily combined with a visit to the Presidential Palace, the One Pillar Pagoda, the Chua Dien Huu Pagoda, as well as the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, as all these major attractions are grouped together around Ba Dinh Square.
Soviet Style Building
The first reason why a visit to the Ho Chi Minh Museum is worth your time is the building itself. The museum is located within a concrete building reminiscent of Soviet era architecture and interesting viewed alongside the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, which is in many ways a Soviet style version of the Parthenon in Athens.
The inside of the building is interesting too, with high ceilings, modernist tiling patterns and intricate inlays. This building could have been built in Moscow in the 1960s, but it was built in Vietnam in the 1990s and is something of a throwback to an era when geopolitics were very different to how they are today.
The Ho Chi Minh Museum is in a Soviet style buildingStory of Ho Chi Minh’s Life
The Ho Chi Minh Museum tells the story of the different stages of Ho Chi Minh’s life with artefacts, photos, dioramas, and pop-art style illustrations and painting. As revolutionary leaders go, Ho Chi Minh had a very interesting life and held very strong values, which is what the museum has been established to communicate. There are some distinct and sincerely held beliefs behind the creation of the Communist state in Vietnam, the museum tells us, and those beliefs were formed during Ho Chi Minh’s early life in Vietnam and his travels around the world before returning to fight for Vietnam’s independence, first from Japan, then from France, and later from American influence.
Information at the Museum
The information boards in the museum are in English and French, as well as in Vietnamese, making this one of the more accessible museums in Vietnam for foreign visitors. Not everyone is going to enjoy a visit to the Ho Chi Minh Museum. If you would like to understand more about the country then you will enjoy the visit, however, if you have no interest in understanding about Vietnam’s culture and history then don’t bother as you will just find it boring. Go for a another drink in one of the bars in the Old Quarter instead.
Location of the Ho Chi Minh Museum
The Ho Chi Minh Museum is located 3.5 km by road from Hanoi Railway Station.
