International relic sites honouring President Ho Chi Minh

PANO - In his revolutionary career, President Ho Chi Minh travelled across various countries, leaving behind profound hallmarks of friendship and solidarity with the local proletarian class. Therefore, his image remains fresh in various countries and relic sites honouring him provide vivid evidence of this.

Most recently, the council of Newhaven Town in the south of England has decided to honour President Ho Chi Minh, confirming the presence of Nguyen Tat Thanh in the journey to seek ways for national salvation. With posters “unknown stories about Newhaven”, the local authorities want to raise the awareness of the local people about Nguyen Tat Thanh, Vietnam’s great leader and national hero, who used to work on an international ferry route linking Newhaven and Dieppe of France via the English Channel after World War I. This is among vital highlights enriching the historical archive on the trip to seek ways for national salvation of President Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam.

Statue of President Ho Chi Minh in Mexico

In the neighbouring country of China, there are various structures commemorating President Ho Chi Minh. Among them are two typical ones, namely the house No. 248 and 250 (No. 13a and 13b in the past) on Van Minh Street, Guangzhou city, Guangdong Province. In this house, President Ho Chi Minh organized political training courses for patriotic youths in early 1926 until April 1927. The house’s downstairs is a grocery. Trainees studied and lived on the third floor. In front of this house features a plague bearing words in Han script, “Special politics training board”. Thanks to his lectures, the Union of Oppressed Nations gathered and published “Revolutionary Road”, the first revolutionary theoretical work in Vietnam, which was regarded as a handbook and a bedside book of Vietnamese revolutionists in the late 1920s.

The second is Nanyang Hotel in Liuzhou (present No. 2 Lieu Thach Street, Liuzhou city, Guangxi Province) which was named a President Ho Chi Minh Relic Site in 2001. Having been freed from a prison of the Nationalist Party of China, Uncle Ho lived in this hotel from late 1943 to September 1944. During his stay there, he carried out various activities, such as opening training courses for Vietnamese revolutionists, taking part in activities launched by the Vietnamese Revolutionary League and a congress of overseas Vietnamese revolutionary organizations in Liuzhou in March 1944. Also in this hotel, Uncle Ho had talks with anti-Japan and France organizations of overseas Vietnamese in Liuzhou, contacted the Party in the homeland and prepared for his return to lead the patriotic movement at home. At present, Liuzhou city reserves the first floor and two apartments on the second floor as an exhibit about President Ho Chi Minh’s activities in Liuzhou and some major landmarks of the relationship between the President and high-ranking Party and State leaders of China, such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shao Qi and Song Qingling. The apartment in which he lived and worked remains intact.

Meanwhile, a statue of President Ho Chi Minh is placed at a park at the intersection of Ho Chi Minh and Jawaharlal Nehru Streets in Calcutta city, India. The capital New Delhi has an avenue named after Ho Chi Minh.

In January 2004, Vietnamese and Thai Prime Ministers and the participants of the Vietnam-Thailand Intergovernmental Conference inaugurated the Vietnam-Thailand Friendship Village in May village. The village’s centre is the Cooperation House where President Ho Chi Minh had lived and worked. In July 1928, Nguyen Ai Quoc went to Thailand. From Bangkok, he stopped at places with a large number of Vietnamese residents such as Phichit, Udon Thani, and Sakon Nakhon. In late 1928, he came to May village in Nakhon Phanom Province under the name Thau Chin and lived in Mr. Vo Trong Dai’s house.

Thau Chin had advised local people to build a cooperation house serving as a place for their revolutionary activities.

A bronze plague, "In here, from 1921 to 1923, Nguyen Ai Quoc, widely known as Ho Chi Minh, lived and fought for independence and freedom of Vietnamese people and oppressed nations", embedded in front of the house No. 9 on Compoint alley, district 17, Paris. Photo: vi.wikipedia

In Nakhon Phanom Province, Thau Chin encouraged Vietnamese residents to learn Thai language to understand their customs, so as to easily win their sympathy and support, and he himself had set a bright example on self-study. He advocated the opening of a school and teaching Vietnamese for Vietnamese children to make them understand their origins. He also advised Vietnamese residents to build and protect solidarity among each other and with Thai people as well. What Thau Chin taught them has become a lesson for Vietnamese generations in May village in particular and in Thailand in general. The lesson is that wherever they are, Vietnamese people should look towards their fatherland and build up friendship and solidarity with local people.

In Singapore, the Asian Civilization Museum attracts thousands of tourists each year. This riverside museum’s highlight is a copy of Vietnam’s Dong Son bronze drum and various Dong Ho paintings. To honour the great international figure who had set foot in Singapore, Singapore’s National Heritage Committee placed a monument to President Ho Chi Minh at the yard in front of the lobby of the museum on the occasion of the 118^th birth anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh and the 35^th anniversary of Vietnam-Singapore diplomatic ties. The monument, 1.8m high, 0.75m wide and 0.23m thick, is made of black granite with a portrait of Uncle Ho and his brief biography. The back of this monument bears the poem “Gia gao” (Pounding Rice) of Uncle Ho. On both sides of this work the image of lotuses, a symbol of his home village, are lightly engraved,. The name of President Ho Chi Minh is written in Vietnamese language. This monument was inaugurated on May 20^th, 2008 by Vietnamese Deputy PM cum Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem and Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo Yong-Boon.

In his revolutionary career, President Ho Chi Minh visited Singapore twice. His first visit was in May 1930 and the second in January 1933.

Embossment of Uncle Ho at Ho Chi Minh Square in Moscow

In Europe, the most typical relic honouring President Ho Chi Minh is his statue in Moscow, Russia. In late 1969 after he died, the first stone was placed in the 1-hectare Park Academytresky, which lies at the intersection of Dmitry Ulyanov and 60 Years of October Streets, and is surrounded by old houses and brick buildings. 9 years later, the 5m tall bronze statue of Uncle Ho was put on a bronze stand, 6m long and 0.5m thick. The front of the statue is engraved deeply with the inscription “Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom” in Russian language. Those words can be seen clearly from a distance of three hundred meters.

In front of the houses No. 1/24 and 2/24 on Dmitry Ulyanov and Trade Union Streets two 1mx1.2m stone plaques are located, bearing words of “Ho Chi Minh Square” and a brief description of his life and career.

Together with Russia, France also records various Uncle Ho landmarks. Among them is the house No. 9 on Compoint alley, district 17, Paris, where President Ho Chi Minh lived for 20 months, from July 14^th 1921 to March 14^th 1923. There, he had founded the Union of French Colonial Nations and he was elected as a permanent member. He also made the first draft of declaration, regulations and appeal. On November 28^th, 1999, the Vietnamese Embassy in France and Paris administration re-embedded a plague recognizing the house as a relic site. 

On March 14^th, 1923, having left the house No. 9 on Compoint ally, Uncle Ho moved to the house No. 3 on Marseille de Patricia district 5, Paris, with the headquarters of the Union of French Colonial Nations and Le Paria newspaper. In 1983, the Central Committee of French Communist Party embedded the historical relic site plague for this house. In 1986, the house was torn down. All exhibits close to President Ho Chi Minh were moved to the “Ho Chi Minh Space” in Montreal History Museum.

Apart from Asia and Europe, America also has various relic sites related President Ho of Vietnam. On January 16^th, 2009, a Statue of Ho Chi Minh and “Freedom for all nations” Park was inaugurated at the Historical Centre in Mexico's capital, Mexico City. These works reflect the deep sentiment and admiration for Vietnamese people and President Ho Chi Minh among Mexico City’s dwellers and its mayor Macelo Ebran.

Also in Mexico, on May 19^th in 2010, an inaugural ceremony of Ho Chi Minh Statue was solemnly organized in Acapulco coastal city in the state of Guerrero. This statue is placed opposite to the statue of Simon Bolivar, a national hero admired throughout Latin America.  

Statue of Uncle Ho in capital city of La Habana, Cuba. Photo: boo8x

Meanwhile, the most typical relic sites honouring President Ho Chi Minh in Cuba, Vietnam’s brother nation, are the monument of Uncle Ho in the capital city of La Habana and the Ho Chi Minh Secondary School in Jarugo Province. The school was opened March 23^rd, 1974 by Vietnamese Chairman of Ministries’ Council Pham Van Dong and Cuban President Fidel Castro in an official visit by the chairman to Cuba. Since its establishment, the school has become one of the two strong foundations of solidarity and friendship with Vietnam, and also the first two foundations recognized by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.

The above sites are among a number of projects in honour of President Ho Chi Minh in foreign countries.

Translated by Mai Huong