Saigon Buries War Past

It looks like Saigon, “the Paris of the East,” can't wait to ditch its colorful culture and tumultuous history for a shining capitalist future, Peter Jon Lindberg writes in Travel + Leisure. Officially Ho Chi Minh City, the Vietnamese “cosmopolis,” 8 million strong, boasts the world's fastest-growing retail market, with high-rises and reclamation projects replacing its once "singular sense of place."

Foreign expatriates and returning Vietnamese have spread global trends among the locals, two-thirds of whom were born after the war's end in 1975. Says one British expat, "There’s a sense of exasperation among young Vietnamese when it comes to the war. They’re sick of hearing about it. For anyone under 30 the attitude is, 'Let’s move on.'" (More Vietnam stories.)