Lê Lợi Boulevard

Lê Lợi Boulevard (Đường Lê Lợi) is a boulevard in District 1, downtown Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The boulevard stretches from Đồng Khởi Street, right across from the Municipal Theatre of Ho Chi Minh City to the Quách Thị Trang Square (in front of the Bến Thành Market).

The Ho Chi Minh City Metro Line 1 runs underneath the boulevard.

History
The history of the boulevard dates back to the 1860s, following the French takeover of Saigon. They ordered the digging of a 800-metre canal with two drainages, the Saigon River (near the Marine barracks) and the arroyo Chinois. One of its main goals was to drain the lower part of Saigon, which was then a pestilential swamp. This waterway was crossed perpendicularly by the "Grand Canal", which later became the Charner Boulevard.

The canal was eventually filled in to create an artery known as "rue n° 13", later changed to boulevard Bonard. The exact time when the canal was filled in is unknown, but it was estimated to be between 1870 and 1880. Initially, the Bonard Boulevard ended at Mac Mahon Street (present-day Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa Street), and it was not until 1914 that the boulevard was extended to the Central Market.

In 1955, the boulevard was renamed Lê Lợi Boulevard by the government of South Vietnam.