Twenty years ago, the magnificent Phu My Hung new urban area and the verdant Nguyen Van Linh Highway were only a swampy area dotted with tracts of forest.

Over the past two decades, the swampy area of Nha Be (Raft houses) has transformed into an urban area south of Ho Chi Minh City, including the Phu My Hung new urban area, Nguyen Van Linh Highway and the Tan Thuan Industrial Zone.

As bus No.102 ran along the 17.8 kilometer Nguyen Van Linh Highway, passing modern residential areas, parks and lotus and fish ponds, a slim, white-haired man looked out of the bus’ window and said it used to be very hard to travel on this route.

That old man was once famous poet and playwright in the southern region. His name is Kien Giang Ha Huy Ha.

He said that in the old days locals mostly traveled by boat, as there was only one small road in an area full of canals and forests.

“At that time, this land was thinly populated, and passers-by usually had trouble finding food and drinking water. Vo Thu Hoang, a rich man in Tan Chanh District, decided to make bamboo rafts and built houses on them. People traveling through the area could then rest there and cook their meals free of charge.

Tuoi Tre's file photo shows a corner of South Saigon and Binh Chanh District (now Nguyen Van Linh Highway) in 1995.

Subsequently, traders also built rafts to sell food. The number of rafts gradually increased to twenty or thirty and were gathered together to form a floating market. “That why this land is called Nha Be,” the old poet said, quoting the book Gia Dinh Thanh Thong Chi’.

That lively community did not last long because of the wars that devastated the southern region, however the name Nha Be has survived until now.

After the wars, Nha Be remained thinly populated. Local residents were poor, and the acidic soil and salt water permitted them to cultivate just one rice crop per year, and it yielded very low output, Ha shared.

According to an article on the difficulties of living in Hiep Phuoc commune in Nha Be District written by Hang Chuc Nguyen, a report for Tuoi Tre newspaper, in 1984, “A thousand young people worked in the field during the day and drank at nightfall with only a musical instrument playing traditional tunes to relax. There was no electricity or TV, no newspapers or books.”

In 1988, he continued to write about food shortages in Hiep Phuoc, “Nearly 2,000 hectares of rice were completely damaged due to salt intrusion. Residents left rice fields and homes to do business in other places, children had to leave school and catch crabs to exchange for rice.”

Le Hong Ngon, the secretary of the Party Committee in Long Thoi Commune, mobilized local people to build a road for students in Nga Ba Dinh Island in 2000, as it took one hour by boat just to go to school.

Tuoi Tre reporters recently returned to Long Thoi Commune and met Ngon again. He happily said that “Long Thoi has changed so much. It is rather difficult to find a rice field now. The road leading to Nga Ba Dinh Island has been broadened and upgraded so automobiles to travel on it.

Young people have gone to work in factories, and the real estate trade has developed, with local residents deciding to sell properties everywhere,” he said.

These changes originated with the appearance of the Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone, the Nguyen Van Linh Highway and the Hiep Phuoc Thermal Power Plant, according to local residents.

Parts of the swampland have become valuable, where investors seek good opportunities, successful people look for a good living environment and workers find good employment.

Today Nha Be is District 7, Nam Saigon (Saigon South), the Phu My Hung new urban area and several residential areas which have taken shape along the Nguyen Van Linh Highway.

The modern Nguyen Van Linh Highway runs across the new township of Saigon South in District 7. Photo: Tuoi Tre.

“Everything changed so quickly. Local residents like us witnessed these changes from the beginning but we are still astonished,” said 80 year old Nguyen Van Nhan in Tan Thuan Dong Ward in District 7.

He is still moved by the memory of the day excavators removed brush from the muddy layers and filled in millions of cubic meters of soil and stones to make foundations of houses, schools and streets.