Airport wonderings

[KeithG]

Just had a brouhaha with the local Vietnamese ethnicity community about Ho Chi Minh City over a billboard advertising air service. Apparently few people refer to it as Ho Chi Minh City, but still call it Saigon and the airport code is still SGN

There was a war. The American War. The south lost. The north won. The north calls it Ho Chi Min City. The south still call it Saigon. But they are not bitter about it...

 

[Centrals]

Peking (PEK) is now Beijing, Beijing - Wikipedia

Peking is still the correct English name!

 

[billt4sf]

So how did Canada get so screwed on airport codes?

Vancouver BC -- YVR
Toronto -- YYZ

WAIT!? - Canada? Which US state is that in?

- Bill

 

[Centrals]

WAIT!? - Canada? Which US state is that in?
- Bill

I had met some Aussie who called New Zealand the 7th State of Australia!!

 

[KeithG]

I had met some Aussie who called New Zealand the 7th State of Australia!!

Strange. The kiwis refer to Oz as the west island.

 

[Mike Veitch]

WAIT!? - Canada? Which US state is that in?

- Bill

It's the place many Americans want to move to

 

[Maverick17]

...although Saigon is still a district of HCM..

Not that it's a big deal, but I think this is a bit off. I'm not Vietnamese, so if you are, maybe I'm obviously wrong and you are right. But I've lived here a long time now. There is no Saigon District. There are many numbered districts, and several with names like Binh Thanh and Thu Duc. Locals who were here when it was a much smaller city will still refer to the central-business area, District 1, as Saigon. But they don't ever use it with "District" in the name, like Quan Saigon. Most everyone else, unless from Hanoi specifically, calls the entire city Saigon in verbal exchanges or uses the district name/number for specifics, even most everyone from the north who now lives here. In written things, HCMC "TPHCM in Vietnamese" is still used and especially on anything government related.

As for the conflict, Saigon was Saigon for a few hundred years before the conflict. But of course it is right after the fighting they changed the name, as one does when taking over a city.

Apparently few people refer to it as Ho Chi Minh City, but still call it Saigon and the airport code is still SGN

Some times these change, sometimes they don't. BOM is still used for Mumbai. Also they can change with new airports. For a long time there was an airport in the USA with a code, and then a new (or maybe just enlarged?) airport in Europe took over that code that was previously in the USA. While of course the US and European airlines new this, an airline in the alliances from another continent changed their use of it in reservations, but not in their award chart. People on travel message boards like this kept it pretty secret, but you could fly for a pittance to Europe in terms of using air miles. I never did, but it was popular for a year or two until someone let the cat out of the bag and that airline updated their IT systems.

 

[Luko]

Locals who were here when it was a much smaller city will still refer to the central-business area, District 1, as Saigon.

That was what I was refering to. So yes, you are right this is not the official name of a district but some geographical "equivalence".

As for the conflict, Saigon was Saigon for a few hundred years before the conflict.

It's funny how Americans see only a difference as of a before/after US-VN war.
The before was much more complexe than that : Indochina was a french colony for a hundred years or so; Saigon was named as such only a little before it became a french colony, so Saigon is associated more which french colonization (as you notice the older buildings) than VN war as such.
In short Saigon bore its name 95% under the french colony, not more than a hundred years.