Passengers pose for a photo with a metro train in HCM City. Photo by Dantri.
The first-ever metro line in Vietnam’s most populous city opened in December 2024. Indeed, the arrival of mass rapid transit marks an achievement for a metropolis famous for its motorbike-choked roads, TIME editors noted.
The 12.2-mile line runs from the historic Ben Thanh Market, situated in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, to the sub-city of Thu Duc in the northeast, with a total of 14 stops, it wrote.
TIME, a globally influential magazine headquartered in New York, confirmed that the metro line helps to ease congestion and pollution in the country’s commercial capital, where the population has almost doubled in size over the last two decades.
Now travelers can bypass whizzing motorbikes and gridlocked streets to reach popular tourist sites such as the French colonial Saigon Opera House, Nguyen Hue pedestrian boulevard, and bustling backpacker and nightlife thoroughfare Bui Vien, the US magazine shared.
Others on the list of 12 Asian best places to visit in 2025, according to TIME, include Zebun Nessa Mosque of Bangladesh, Nintendo Museum Uji of Japan, the Beijing Library of China, Eagle Hunter Cultural Center of Mongolia, and Wangduechhoeling Palace Museum of Bhutan.
