Cholon (The Chinese side of things)

Cholon or district 5 is south of the main part of downtown.  During my days in Saigon I have taken to waking up drinking coffee and then going to the central bus station and just getting on buses.  The buses are a very cheap (.25 ¢) and allow you to see the city from a much safer vantage point.  The amount of new construction is leading to the city of Saigon looking more like another city in Southeast Asia and less like its colonial past.  The neighborhood of Cholon still has French colonial buildings with their crumbling exteriors and streets dedicated to certain merchandise.  These are some of the pictures of an afternoon in the neighborhood just walking around.