Vietnam Map

An S-shaped country between mountains and sea

Vietnam runs about 1,650 kilometers from the Chinese border to the Ca Mau peninsula, with roughly 3,260 kilometers of coastline on the Gulf of Tonkin, the South China Sea (known in Vietnam as the East Sea) and the Gulf of Thailand. It is broad at both ends and pinched in the middle: in the former Quang Binh province, now part of Quang Tri, only about 50 kilometers separate the Lao border from the sea. Its 331,212 square kilometers are home to about 102 million people (UN World Population Prospects, 2025 estimate), most of them packed into two great river deltas at either end of the country.

The north is mountainous. The Hoang Lien Son range near Sa Pa holds Fansipan, at 3,143 meters the highest peak in Indochina, and its slopes are terraced for rice by Hmong, Dao and other minority communities. Below the hills, the Red River flows in from Yunnan, past Hanoi, to build the Red River Delta. The Truong Son, or Annamite Range, then runs south along the Lao and Cambodian borders. Its limestone country at Phong Nha-Ke Bang contains Son Doong, often described as the world's largest cave passage, and further south lie the basalt plateaus of the Central Highlands, the heart of Vietnam's coffee production. The far south is the Mekong Delta, a flat web of channels, rice paddies and orchards that the Mekong reaches after flowing through or along China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia (see rivers of Asia).

Three climates and when to go

Vietnam spans about 15 degrees of latitude, so no single month suits the whole country. The north has a real winter: Hanoi is cool, grey and often drizzly from December to February, with frost possible in the high mountains, and hot, humid and wet from May to September. The central coast between Hue and Nha Trang gets its heaviest rain late, from about September to December, when typhoons and floods are most likely; February to May is the reliable time for Hue, Hoi An and Da Nang. The south is hot all year, with a dry season from roughly December to April and heavy afternoon downpours from May to November. For a single north-to-south trip, March and April are usually the best compromise. Typhoon Yagi, which struck the north in September 2024, was the strongest storm to hit the region in decades.

34 provinces after the 2025 reform

On 1 July 2025 Vietnam carried out its biggest administrative overhaul since reunification. The 63 provinces and centrally run cities were merged into 34 units: 28 provinces and six centrally run cities (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Can Tho and Hue). The district tier was abolished at the same time, leaving a two-tier system of provinces and about 3,300 communes and wards. Only 11 units kept their old boundaries, among them Hanoi, Hue, Quang Ninh, Nghe An and Thanh Hoa. Many familiar names disappeared from the map: Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau became part of Ho Chi Minh City, Quang Nam was joined to Da Nang, Hai Duong to Hai Phong, and Soc Trang and Hau Giang to Can Tho. Older maps and guidebooks still show the previous 63 units.

Major cities

• Ho Chi Minh City - the economic engine of the south, still widely called Saigon. Since the 2025 merger the city stretches from the Binh Duong industrial parks to the beaches of Vung Tau and has about 14 million residents, the most of any province-level unit.
• Hanoi - the capital, on the Red River, with the Old Quarter, Hoan Kiem Lake and the Thang Long Imperial Citadel, a World Heritage site; Vietnamese dynasties first made it their capital in 1010.
• Hai Phong - the north's main seaport and an industrial center on the Red River delta coast, and the gateway to Cat Ba Island and Lan Ha Bay.
• Da Nang - central Vietnam's main city, port and airport, between the Hai Van Pass and the old trading town of Hoi An, which now lies inside the enlarged city.
• Hue - capital of the Nguyen dynasty from 1802 to 1945, whose citadel and royal tombs on the Perfume River are a World Heritage site; it became a centrally run city in January 2025.
• Can Tho - the largest city in the Mekong Delta, known for the Cai Rang floating market and as the hub of the delta's rice and fruit trade.

How the map took shape

The Vietnamese state grew out of the Red River Delta, which was under Chinese rule for about a thousand years until the victory at Bach Dang in 938. Over the following centuries Vietnamese dynasties pushed south, absorbing the Cham kingdoms of the central coast and, by the 18th century, the Khmer-populated Mekong Delta; this "southward march" explains the country's long, thin shape. France conquered the region between 1858 and 1885 and ruled it as part of French Indochina. After the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, the 1954 Geneva Accords divided the country at the 17th parallel. The war between North and South, with heavy US involvement from the mid-1960s, ended with the fall of Saigon in April 1975, and the country was formally reunified in 1976. The Doi Moi reforms launched in 1986 opened the economy to private business and foreign investment.

Vietnam in the region

Vietnam joined ASEAN in 1995 and is now one of Asia's largest manufacturing exporters, assembling phones and electronics and making garments and footwear for global brands. It is also the world's largest exporter of cashew nuts, the second-largest coffee producer after Brazil (mostly robusta) and one of the top rice exporters. Offshore, its claims overlap with its neighbours' in the South China Sea: China has controlled the Paracel Islands since 1974, while Vietnam also claims them, and the Spratly Islands are claimed in whole or in part by Vietnam, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, several of which occupy features there. Vietnam has nine UNESCO World Heritage sites, most recently the Yen Tu-Vinh Nghiem-Con Son, Kiep Bac complex of Buddhist and historic sites, inscribed in 2025. The best known is Ha Long Bay, with about 1,600 limestone islands and islets.