Northern and Southern Vietnam

Northern And Southern Vietnam

Northern Vietnam and Southern Vietnam are two general regions within Vietnam.

Of the two regions, the older is Northern Vietnam, where the Vietnamese culture originated over 2000 years ago in the Red River Delta, though Vietnamese people eventually spread south into the Mekong Delta. During the Trịnh-Nguyễn War (1627–1673), the country was partitioned between two ruling families, with the border being the Gianh River in Quang Binh Province. From 1954 to 1975, Vietnam was again divided into two separate nations, divided by the Ben Hai River at the 17th parallel, each with its own government. Although the nation has been united since 1975, linguistic, cultural, and other differences serve to delineate the two regions from one another, with accompanying stereotypes.

The largest city in the North is Hanoi, the nation's capital, and the largest city in the South is Ho Chi Minh City (formerly called Saigon).

Each region consists of four subregions, with often considerable cultural differences between each subregion.

Northern Vietnam includes the following subregions:

• Northwest (Tây Bắc)
• Northeast (Đông Bắc)
• Red River Delta (Đồng Bằng Sông Hồng)
• North Central Coast (Bắc Trung Bộ)

Southern Vietnam includes the following subregions:

• South Central Coast (Nam Trung Bộ)
• Central Highlands (Tây Nguyên)
• Southeast (Đông Nam Bộ)
• Mekong River Delta (Đồng Bằng Sông Cửu Long)