Standing tall on the busy Dinh Thien Hoang and Phan Dang Luu intersection is the Gia-Dinh Gate in Ho Chi Minh City. The bright yellow gate captures the attention of any any passer by.
Gia Dinh Gate was the gateway to the Ecole de Dessin Gia Dinh , an arts school in Saigon founded by the French in 1913, that provided further studies for students from Thu Dau Mot School of Indigenous Arts ( Ecole d’Art Indigene de Thu-Dau-Mot) and also for students of Ecole d’Art de Bien Hoa . Thu-Dau-Mot School gave training in woodwork and lacquer-ware whereas Bien Hoa School of Arts was teaching ceramics and bronze-casting. The institute produced many prominent sculptors and painters of South Vietnam.
In 1955 The Saigon National College of Fine Arts was opened close by and after the Reunification of Vietnam in 1975, the two schools were merged to form the Ho Chi Minh City of Fine Arts. Later, all the the teachings were confined to the new building of 1955. The original Ecole de Dessin Gia-Dinh was demolished and paved way to Truong Cong Dinh Secondary School. However, the regal looking gateway was preserved and it stands the test of Time.
House Sparrow 
It’s beautiful! And it doesn’t feel quite as much a part of a strange culture to me now; I’ve been introduced to Pho and bánh mì, and loved them both. Over the Easter holiday, I went down the coast, and found an old fishing village with a Vietnamese family running the combination restaurant/bait shop/ beer counter, and the lady who does the cooking gave me some language lessons together with my lunch. Great fun! There wasn’t a yellow gate, but she was an artist with the food.
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How interesting is that Linda!! So happy to hear that. Yes, banh mi and pho are my favourites too.
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I took some photos at a very interesting cemetery in the town, too. There’s quite a mix of Hispanic, Vietnamese, and German/Czech graves there. Many of the Vietnamese people buried there were born in Vietnam. They surely came here in the 1970s, and their grave markers are quite distinct.
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