Financial Tower - Saigon's tallest building

By Mark Bowyer / Last updated 11 Nov 2011

Introduction

Saigon's recently opened tallest buildiing, Bitexco Financial Tower, makes a big impact on the city skyline. It towers above virtually everything in its colonial era midst. We recently visited and took the super fast lift to the Skydeck for an amazing view of the city.

©Photo: Mark Bowyer
©Photo: Mark Bowyer
©Photo: Mark Bowyer
©Photo: Mark Bowyer
©Photo: Mark Bowyer
©Photo: Mark Bowyer
©Photo: Mark Bowyer
©Photo: Mark Bowyer
©Photo: Mark Bowyer

Bitexco Financial Tower springs from the rear of an old French colonial building that is now the State Treasury building. The interior exhibits some nice original features but interested travellers willl be quickly ushered away by overzealous security guards.
Bitexco Financial Tower. Its opening in late 2010 coincided with the onset of some of Vienam's most difficult financial challenges in decades. High inflation, killer interest rates, collapsing property prices and a moribund stock market didn't create the most auspicious conditions for the tower's inauguration.
Towering above an old French era bank building.
Word has it that engineering and safety issues mean the helipad will never be used.
Along the Saigon River from the Skydeck.
Colonial era icons, the Hotel de Ville, Continental Hotel and Opera House are lost in the new city skyline.
Saigon's dense urban sprawl.
The contrast between the green space on one side of the river and the dense building on the other is dramatic. A new tunnel under the river will soon change that.
Changing city skyline from the Saigon River. Financial Tower.