Ho Chi Minh City, a top destination for expats

Andy Passenger wrote:

Ho Chi Minh City is global the fourth most popular expat city.

Even before Bangkok.  That's hard to believe.

For me, HCMC is a abhorrent city.

Most popular city is Taipei before Singapore and Panama.

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/saigo … 46310.html

Is vnexpress even a credible source to get your news from? Or any Vietnamese news company for that matter.

QuidProQuo wrote:

Andy Passenger wrote:

Ho Chi Minh City is global the fourth most popular expat city.

Even before Bangkok.  That's hard to believe.

For me, HCMC is a abhorrent city.

Most popular city is Taipei before Singapore and Panama.

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/saigo … 46310.html

Is vnexpress even a credible source to get your news from? Or any Vietnamese news company for that matter.

"Ho Chi Minh City has claimed fourth position on the 2018 Expat City Ranking by InterNations, the world’s largest network for people who live and work abroad."

This ranking is from InterNations.org, a service like Expat.com.

internations.org/expat-insider/2018/the-best-and-worst-cities-for-expats-39685

As the article mentions, the low cost of living was the major factor cited by those who chose HCMC. This seems reasonable enough as it is cheap compared to many cities around the world.

Regarding Bangkok, I lived there for a number of years and it was great in many ways, but I feel that it and Thailand changed for the worst while VN and HCMC have been improving in some areas to some degree.

In the end I would say that, if you're in Vietnam, it's best to live somewhere other than HCMC and Ha Noi and maybe even Da Nang, which was recently in the news:

Errors in urban planning to blame for unprecedented inundation (flooding) in Da Nang
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/201 … 48081.html

Anyway, I'm not sure what is so great about Taipei. Any ideas?

johnross23 wrote:

Anyway, I'm not sure what is so great about Taipei. Any ideas?

I've never been there before.

But it is at the top of my list of destinations.

A few short words from someone who knows Taipei would be great.

johnross23 wrote:

Regarding Bangkok, I lived there for a number of years and it was great in many ways, but I feel that it and Thailand changed for the worst while VN and HCMC have been improving in some areas to some degree.

I can't say anything about that, because I was there a little over a year and a half ago for the last time.
However, I was impressed in Thailand that even in the deepest provinces, there is a general ban on smoking and alcohol consumption at railway stations. And the good thing about it is that people adhered to it. And I read that in Phuket there is now even a smoking ban on beaches. Exemplary!

In general, I would say, if it weren't for the cost of living, Singapore would clearly have to be at the top of the rankings.
There are strict laws, which are almost exclusively adhered.
If the laws in Vietnam would be implemented as rigorously as in Singapore, a city in Vietnam would be justified for me in the Rangking on rank 4 to be. Especially when the metro will finally be operational in a few years.

QuidProQuo wrote:

Is vnexpress even a credible source to get your news from? Or any Vietnamese news company for that matter.

The VinExpress title is misleading. 
"Saigon becomes a top expat destination". 
That sounds to me like Saigon is #4 for cities in the world where expats live.

What VnExpess actually reported on was Best and Worst Cities for Expats 2018 where Saigon is #4.  That is just a survey of Internations members of places they like.

VnExpress confused it with another report with the title: Top Expat Destinations 2018.  This is a ranking by country. Vietnam is 14. But this is also a survey of expat satisfaction, not population data.

According to govt reports in this article, there are about 105,000 foreign workers in Vietnam in 2018. Little Belgium has 220,000. Qatar, population 2.6 million, and 70% are expats. Saudi has the most. For a definition of 'expat', this report measured worldwide, 73% of expats are foreign workers; students, retired, etc made up the rest.

These ranking put out by these magazines should be viewed with a jaundice eye. I came to VN the first time because NT beach was ranked 3rd in the world as the best beach.
And this Internations polling was a very small sampling to begin with an the do not mention how many responses they got, just a %.
Not trying to knock VN or HCM but.......