Seaport city (pop., 1992 est.: 783,133), northern Vietnam.
Lying on the Red River delta, off the Gulf of Tonkin , it is the nation's third largest city and serves as the port of the capital, Hanoi , 60 mi (97 km) to the west. Established in 1874, it developed commercially as a port and as the terminus of a railway. It became a leading industrial centre, and after 1954 many new plants were built there with aid given by Soviet-bloc countries and by China. It sustained heavy damage from U.S. bombing during the Vietnam War but was subsequently rebuilt.