The Jade Emperor Pagoda is a temple of Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian worship at 73 Mai Thi Luu Street in Tan Dinh, north of the city centre. Vietnamese call it Chua Ngoc Hoang; its other name is Phuoc Hai Tu. The city's tourism site says a man named Luu Minh built it between 1892 and 1900, and that it was listed as a national architectural and artistic relic in 1994. Wikipedia adds that he was a Cantonese merchant, and that US President Barack Obama visited on 22 May 2016.
The main hall is for the Jade Emperor himself. In the rear halls are the Kings of Hell, the goddess Kim Hoa Thanh Mau with 12 midwife figures, where couples come to pray for a child, and the matchmaker shrine of Ong To and Ba Nguyet, for people praying to find love.
Getting there
Measured in a straight line on map coordinates, the pagoda is about 0.9 km from the zoo and from the History Museum, and about 1.7 km from Independence Palace. Saigon railway station is about 2.5 km away and Tan Son Nhat International Airport about 5.8 km, both in a straight line; the roads are longer.
Hours and fees
| When | Hours |
|---|---|
| Every day | 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM |
| 1st and 15th day of the lunar month | 5:00 AM to 7:00 PM |
The city's tourism page gives these hours but no ticket price. Its biggest day is the Jade Emperor festival on the 9th day of the first lunar month, just after Tet.
The page also asks visitors to dress modestly, keep quiet and ask the management before filming or taking photos inside the shrines.
Our take
This is a working temple. The longer hours on the lunar 1st and 15th and the festival in the first lunar month are for worshippers, so we'd visit on any other day. The zoo and the History Museum are both under a kilometre away, which makes it an easy add-on.
Nearby
- Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens: about 0.9 km in a straight line.
- History Museum: about 0.9 km in a straight line.
- War Remnants Museum: about 1.5 km in a straight line.
