Cần Thơ is the Mekong Delta’s canal-and-floating-market hub
Cần Thơ, Vietnam’s third largest centrally governed city, sits in the Mekong Delta amid floating markets, rice-paper villages, and canals. Its 2024 population neared 4.2 million. In June 2025 the National Assembly merged Hậu Giang and Sóc Trăng provinces into the municipality.
Ninh Kiều, home to a major port, was the old central district and densest former borough. The city borders Cà Mau to the southwest, An Giang west and north, Vĩnh Long east, and Đồng Tháp northeast. Rivers and canals—including the Hậu, Cần Thơ, Thốt Nốt, and Ô Môn—structure daily life; locals treat the Hậu as a regional benefactor.
Resolution 202/2025/QH15 took effect the day it passed, redrawing the delta’s administrative map overnight. The reorganised municipality is split into 103 commune-level units, 31 urban wards and 72 rural communes.
Visitors come for the Cái Răng and Phong Điền floating markets, where trading happens from boats, as well as Ninh Kiều wharf, bird gardens, the Trúc Lâm Phương Nam Zen monastery, the Bằng Lăng stork sanctuary in Thốt Nốt, and the Bình Thủy house of 1870, which blends French and Asian design. Orchards supply pomelo, longan, rambutan, mangosteen, dragon fruit and durian. From Ho Chi Minh City the drive along National Highway 1A covers about 170 kilometres and takes three to four hours, and Cần Thơ International Airport, 9 kilometres from the centre, links the city with Hanoi, Da Nang and Phú Quốc. It hosts Cần Thơ University and a medical university, and Vietnam Television runs a regional studio in Ninh Kiều. The climate is tropical wet and dry.
Source: Cần Thơ
