Vũng Tàu

Vũng Tàu is a former coastal city in southeast Vietnam, built on a peninsula and island in the south of the country. It was abolished in July 2025 and absorbed into Ho Chi Minh City together with its parent province, Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu. Before that the city covered 141.1 square kilometres, with sixteen urban wards and the island commune of Long Sơn. Its name means anchorage, after the European trading ships that visited the cape in the 14th and 15th centuries, and the French called the place Cap Saint-Jacques. It grew as a coastal resort and a military base, and is known as a major crude oil extraction center of Vietnam. The name Vũng Tàu now belongs to a ward covering the southern cape, although the whole former city is still called Vũng Tàu in everyday speech.