Vietnam: The Dragon Smiles - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 273

the government controlled buying and selling. Former landlords and middle-class business
people were sent to labor camps, where they learned to repent their beliefs and the sins of
their former lives. Vietnam's economy then stagnated to the point of being dependent on
gifts and loans from Russia and China. Once an exporter of rice, Vietnam now became de-
pendent on rice imports to feed its population.
In the 1980s Vietnam began changing its economic policies. The country's politburo
followed the lead of China: keep tight political control but reintroduce marketplace eco-
nomics—disguised, of course, under proper socialist names. Doi Moi is the new economic
regime. Under it, Ho Chi Minh City is the engine that carries the country to rising incomes
and prosperity. Prosperity, of course, is relative. In 2004 the average per capita income was
slightly more than one dollar per day or around $400 per year. But is has risen rather dra-
matically since, reaching $1,232 per year in 2009 and $1,911 in 2013. [245]
Hundreds of shop stalls line the streets, their owners sitting outside on short-legged
chairs. They chat with neighbors and passersby, eating and cooking out on the sidewalk.
Gold markets, jade markets, clothes markets, produce markets—each has its geography and
its vast, covered enclosure. The Vietnamese are brilliant artisans. They fabricate designer-
labeled clothes, oil paintings carrying museum-coveted signatures, newly forged “ancient”
samurai swords, fake zippo lighters inscribed with American soldiers' names and—no need
for counterfeit labels and signatures—beautiful embroideries. Except for foodstuffs, bar-
gaining for goods is a gentle exchange. Cheerful smiles prevail.
HOW DO SAIGON AND HANOI COMPARE?
The Vietnamese often say that the North (meaning Hanoi) won the war, but Ho Chi Minh
City (meaning Saigon) won the victory. What does this mean? It is simple. While Hanoi
stands steadfast as the political capital and stronghold of the Communist Party, it is Saigon
that drives the engines of economic success. It is Saigon that makes the country prosper-
ous.
While Saigon is a modern city, laid out by the French sometime after 1859, Hanoi is
an ancient capital, built on the banks of the Red River. Legend has it that a king seeking
an auspicious place for his capital saw a golden dragon rise out of one of the city's eleven
lakes and ascend to the sky. The fortunes of the city rose and fell with successive kings, but
in 1882 the French took it over, and today's modern city began.