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Biên Hòa (Northern accent: listenⓘ, Southern accent: listenⓘ) is the capital city of Đồng Nai Province, Vietnam and part of the Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area and located to the northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, to which Biên Hòa is linked by Vietnam Highway 1. Classified as a class-1 provincial city, it is the sixth largest city in Vietnam by population.[1]
Biên Hòa
Thành phố Biên Hòa
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|---|---|
| Biên Hòa City | |
From left to right, from top to bottom: Trấn Biên Temple of Literature, Buddha Mau Buu Hoa shrine, Ghềnh bridge
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Seal | |
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  Biên Hòa Location of in Vietnam | |
| Coordinates: 10°57′N 106°49′E / 10.950°N 106.817°E / 10.950; 106.817 | |
| Country |  Vietnam |
| Province | Đồng Nai |
| Area | |
| • Total | 263.62 km2 (101.78 sq mi) |
| Population
(2022)
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| • Total | 1.272.235 |
| • Density | 4,826/km2 (12,500/sq mi) |
| Climate | Aw |
Biên Hòa spans 264 square kilometers of midland terrain in the West of Đồng Nai province. The majority of the city is situated to the east of the Đồng Nai River.
Biên Hòa shares borders with:[2]
Biên Hòa has 30 divisions (29 wards and 1 commune), include:[3]
In 1989 the estimated population was 273,879. In 1999, the population was 435,400, and in 2009 it was 701,194.[4] In December 2012, the population of the city crossed the one million mark.[5]
The population in 2019 was 1,055,414,[6] and in 2021 it was 1,119,190.[7]
The capture of Biên Hòa on December 16, 1861, was an important allied victory in the Cochinchina Campaign (1858–62). This campaign, fought between the French and the Spanish on the one side and the Vietnamese (under the Nguyễn dynasty) on the other, began as a limited punitive expedition and ended as a French war of conquest. The war concluded with the establishment of the French colony of Cochinchina, a development that inaugurated nearly a century of French colonial dominance in Vietnam.
Biên Hòa grew into a major suburb of Saigon as the capital city of the Republic of (South) Vietnam grew. Following the First Indochina War, tens of thousands of refugees from the northern and central regions of Vietnam—a large portion of whom were Roman Catholics—resettled in Biên Hòa as part of Operation Passage to Freedom. During the Vietnam War, the United States Air Force operated Biên Hòa Air Base near the city. Mortar attacks on U.S. and ARVN targets were frequently staged from residential districts in Biên Hòa. Two of the better-known attacks took place during Tết of 1968 as well as 1969.[8]
Like most other areas of Vietnam, post-war Biên Hòa suffered a period of severe economic decline between 1975 and the second half of the 1980s. In part, because of its high concentration of former refugees and their descendants who had fled the communist government of North Vietnam in the mid-1950s, Biên Hòa was the site of small-scale resistance to the communist government in the months immediately following the fall of the Republic of Vietnam.
In the 1980s, the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam initiated the economic reform policy of Đổi Mới and Biên Hòa experienced an economic resurgence. Biên Hòa and the surrounding areas received large amounts of foreign investment capital, and the area rapidly industrialized.[9]
As of 2005[update], Biên Hòa is now an industrial center of southern Vietnam, and many factories and warehouses (often funded in collaboration with Japanese, Singaporean, American, Swiss and other foreign investors) operate in the area surrounding the city. Biên Hòa Sugar is located near the city.
With regard to entertainment, the city includes several amusement parks, nightclubs and restaurants lining the Đồng Nai River. Construction has increased rapidly (with many Western-style houses and villas under development), and the real estate market has experienced a series of boom cycles since the mid-1990s.[10]
Biên Hòa also is the location of the Biên Hòa Military Cemetery, a large national cemetery for fallen soldiers and military officials of the former Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). The cemetery today is now neglected by the current communist regime, and many sections of the cemetery are either vandalized, or demolished for the construction of various building projects. Most of the time there was no proper reburial for the skeletal remains, and this caused an outcry by overseas Vietnamese, most of whom came from the South.[11] The Vietnamese America Foundation, and its program called "The Returning Casualty", are attempting to restore the cemetery and excavate a nearby mass grave.[12]
At the end of 2015, the Prime Minister of Vietnam issued Decision No.2488/QD-TTg recognizing Biên Hòa as a class-1 provincial city.[13]
Biên Hòa is one of the centers of industry in southern Vietnam. There are six industrial zones:
Sanyang Motor's Vietnam Manufacturing & Export Processing Co., Ltd. (VMEP) is located in Biên Hòa.
As a result of the Viet Nam war, some areas around Bien Hoa Air Base were dioxin pollution. The authorities are trying to clean up these areas.[16]
10°57′N 106°49′E / 10.950°N 106.817°E / 10.950; 106.817
