Names of Ho Chi Minh City "ya dingin" or "ya hering", meaning "cool and cold" or "cold and clear", respectively—perhaps referring to the appearance of the area's many waterways. On July 2, 1976, upon the formal establishment of the modern-day Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the new government renamed the city after Hồ Chí Minh, the first leader of North Vietnam. The official name is now "Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh"; "Thành phố" is the Vietnamese word for "city". In English, this is translated as "Ho Chi Minh City"; in French it is translated as "Hô-Chi-Minh-Ville" (the circumflex and hyphens are sometimes omitted). Due to its length,
Ho Chi Minh Highway highway now stays completely within Vietnam's borders. Ho Chi Minh Highway Ho Chi Minh Road or Ho Chi Minh Highway () is a highway in Vietnam. It runs from the north to the south of Vietnam, west of National Route 1A. The highway was named after Hồ Chí Minh. The route roughly coincides with the Ho Chi Minh trail during the Vietnam War. It is a two-lane highway and is planned to become an 8-lane highway and it will connect Cao Bằng Province by the Sino-Vietnamese border to Cà Mau Province with the total length of 3,167 km. As of