The oddly modern Vinh Station, the old apartments from the German Democratic Republic, remnants of the Nghe An Ancient Citadel, Vinh Market and the famous foam coffee, Ho Chi Minh, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, and future Vinh on the high-speed railway.
Vinh is the capital city of Nghe An province in the North Central Coast region of Vietnam. It’s about halfway between Ninh Binh and Phong Nha, and not many visitors stop in between. That alone was enough reason for me to visit.
Vinh is on the North-South Railway, so I booked a train trip from Da Nang to Hanoi, stopping at some less-visited places along the way.
I arrived on a cloudy day after spending a day on the train from Dong Ha. The train was outrunning a tropical storm that hit the central coast area (around Hue and Da Nang), so I was glad to arrive to see that it wasn’t raining.
I mention the weather to forewarn that most of the photos in this article are grey and dull. I had planned to visit the beach of Vinh to see what a resort beach looks like in the North Central Coast region, but I have been to enough beaches on grey days to know that I would be disappointed.
These are the notes of my visit to Vinh in October 2025.
Vinh Train Station
Vinh Station is an unusual design compared to other stations in Vietnam. It has that “built after the war” vibe that can be found in Eastern Europe.
There is a photo of the old station in the waiting room, which hints at what Vinh used to look like before the war.
The grey weather added to the ambience of my initial perception of Vinh. I walked out of the station and was greeted with a wide and straight road.
The wide streets and greyness of it all made me feel like I was in a former Eastern Bloc country, and this was another reason why I was curious to visit Vinh.
The DDR Apartments of Vinh
Vinh is known for the apartment blocks that were built with assistance from the German Democratic Republic in the 1970s.
The apartments are on the main street in the middle of the city, and they are gradually disappearing as modern buildings replace them in these prime locations.
I wrote an article about the apartments at Future Southeast Asia: The last days of the DDR Apartments of Vinh.
Remnants of the Nghe An Ancient Citadel
What would have been the tourism highlight of the city was destroyed during the wars. Vinh had an ancient citadel, and its star-shaped footprint can still be seen on the map.
[Map of old citadel of Vinh.]
There are three gates that are somewhat intact.
[Left Gate of Nghe An Citadel.]
The moat is also intact, though it loses its visual impact without a wall to go with it. The citadel is a residential area with houses along the moat.
This article has an aerial photo of the moat and some old photos.
Vinh Market and the famous foam coffee
As I have mentioned many times before, when you are in an unfamiliar city in Vietnam and don’t know what to do, head for the central market.
The Vinh central market is architecturally nothing to write home about, but little did I know that one of the most intriguing cafes in Vietnam is hidden in the bowels of this building.
I got a message from an English teacher from England who lives in Vinh. He saw my update on LinkedIn, which has unexpectedly become a useful social media platform for Vietnam. He invited me for a coffee inside the market, so we met outside and I followed him through the labyrinthian interior.
Long Ly Cafe is named after the husband and wife team that operate the cafe, and Cafe Bọt (Foam Coffee) is the type of coffee that is served here.
The foam is freshly whipped on demand. As far as I can tell, the foam is coffee-infused whipped cream, though the articles I have read say that the recipe is a secret. Mr Long has been here for over 20 years, and he still makes the coffees. In addition to walk-in customers, there were many delivery drivers coming and going, as well as deliveries to other workers in the market.
What is interesting about this coffee is that it hasn’t spread across the country yet. There are many types of coffee in Vietnam that are associated with cities:
– Ca Phe Sua Da (synonymous with Saigon, and called Ca Phe Saigon in Central Vietnam)
– Coconut Coffee (Da Nang)
– Salt Coffee (Hue)
– Egg Coffee (Hanoi)
Maybe when Mr Long retires he will give up the recipe and foam coffee will become common across Vietnam. It could be known as Long Coffee, or Vinh Coffee to put Vinh on the coffee map.
A foam coffee cost 15,000 VND (0.57 USD).
[Cafe Bọt menu (October 2025).]
Legend has it that Mr Long is the second-most Instagrammed/TikTokked person in Vinh, after Ho Chi Minh.
Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh was born in a village outside of Vinh in 1890 (his birth name was Nguyen Sinh Cung). While technically not from Vinh, he was from Nghe An province, so there is an appropriate statue in Vinh for the provincial hero.
Nguyen Thi Minh Khai
Someone who was born in Vinh was Nguyen Thi Minh Khai. She was born in 1910 under the name of Nguyen Thi Vinh, and was executed in Saigon by the French in 1941.
Nguyen Thi Minh Khai is one of the 1,375 names in the database of street and public work names. Some names are more prominent than others, and Nguyen Thi Minh Khai is a name I see in almost every city. Maybe I notice this name more because I lived on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai in Ho Chi Minh City for a while. The name is seared onto my brain like where I lived in Melbourne (Barkly St and Mitford St), which are now part of my life history.
The Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Memorial House is on the main street (where the DDR apartments used to be).
There is an alter and some information of her life (Vietnamese only). Here is an article about the life of Comrade Nguyen Thi Minh Khai.
The memorial site has some photos of old Vinh, of which there is no trace of today.
[Avenue Marechal Foch.]
A shame that the old Railway Hotel no longer exists.
[Hotel de la Gare.]
Food in Vinh
Some provinces have their signature dishes, and Nhe An is famous for eel soup (súp lươn Nghệ An).
I like the presentation of the fish at this banh canh ca loc restaurant. The pieces are stacked in a way that everyone gets the same portion.
Apart from the English teacher I met, in the four days I was in Vinh I saw two other guys that looked like English teachers, and two travellers with backpacks. I mention this I was a curiosity to the diners at the restaurant.
Future Vinh
I keep a list of major developments in cities of Southeast Asia at my Future Cities series. There is not enough happening in Vinh to justify a full post, but the arrival of the Sheraton Hotel indicates a new era for the city.
Next to the Sheraton is Vincom Plaza, and they were both nearly finished when I was there. Not that my boss would let me stay there (it’s me, I’m the boss), but if you want a fancy hotel with a view in Vinh, then use my link to book a room at Sheraton Vinh.
I wasn’t expecting to see much here, so the Sheraton was a surprise. I was more interested in seeing Vinh as it is now (including the remaining DDR apartments) before the high-speed railway is built (if it gets built at all).
Vinh will be one of the 5 main express stations (Hanoi – Vinh – Danang – Nha Trang – Ho Chi Minh City) out of a total of 23 stations. Being one of the express stations will be transformative for the fortunes of Vinh, and maybe it will become a thriving metropolis after the railway is built.
Follow the construction of the railway at my Vietnam High-Speed Railway page.
A good Vinh guide
This Vinh guide is on a personal website of a resident English teacher.
Onward travel
From Vinh, I got the train to Nam Dinh.
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