Thai Nguyen City Profile

submitted by Hoang Van Phu - November 5, 2013

THAI NGUYEN CITY PROFILE

I.            THAI NGUYEN CITY OVERVIEW

Thái Nguyên is a city and municipality in Vietnam. It is the capital and largest city of Thái Nguyên Province. The city is listed as a first class city and is the ninth largest city in Vietnam. It has long been famous throughout Vietnam for its tea. In 1959 it became the site of Vietnam's first steel mill, and is now home to a large and growing major regional university complex.

II.           GEOGRAPHY

Thái Nguyên City is located on the Cầu River. According to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics of Thai Nguyen in 2012, its area is approximately 186.31 km2 and its population was 287,910 in 2012.

III.          HISTORY

The city played an important role in Vietnam's struggles for independence during the French colonial era.

Thái Nguyên uprising in 1917 was the "largest and most destructive" anti-colonial rebellion in French Indochina between the Pacification of Tonkin in the 1880s and the Nghe-Tinh Revolt of 1930–31. In August 1917, Vietnamese prison guards mutinied at the Thai Nguyen Penitentiary, the largest one in the region. With the aid of the freed inmates – common criminals as well as political prisoners – and weapons captured from the provincial arsenal, the rebels were able to take over control of local government offices. They then established a fortified perimeter, executed French officials and local collaborators, and called for a general uprising. Although they were only able to hold the city for five days, French forces were not able to pacify the surrounding countryside until six months later, leaving many casualties on both sides.

During the First Indochina War, the province played an important role as a safe area (abbreviated ATK in Vietnamese for An Toan Khu) for the Viet Minh. In 1956 the town became the headquarters of the northernmost military region, called Viet Bắc, until reunification in 1975.

Originally a small township including four residential quarters, two towns, and six communes with a combined population of approximately 140,000 and Thái Nguyên became a city on 19 October 1962. Before that date, the area was a part of Đồng Mô commune, Đồng Hỷ district.

(SEE ATTACHMENT ABOVE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)