A new exhibition in Hanoi is giving travellers an unexpected angle on Southeast Asian history — the years a young Hồ Chí Minh spent in China, and the Vietnamese fighters who joined a doomed but pivotal uprising in Guangzhou in 1927.
The display, titled Revolutionary Friendship – Vietnamese Comrades in the Guangzhou Uprising, opened on October 28 at the Hồ Chí Minh Museum and runs until February 28, 2027. It marks two anniversaries: 102 years since Nguyễn Ái Quốc — the name Hồ Chí Minh travelled under — arrived in Guangzhou on November 11, 1924, and 99 years since the Guangzhou Uprising of December 11, 1927.
More than 100 documents, photographs and artifact images are split into three sections. The first, Guangzhou – A Cradle of Revolution, covers the 1920s, when Vietnamese patriots answered Nguyễn Ái Quốc's call and moved to southern China to study and organise. It was in Guangzhou in 1925 that he founded the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League and launched the Thanh Niên (Youth) newspaper — moves that trained the cadres and built the political groundwork for what would become the Communist Party of Vietnam.
The second section turns to the uprising itself, an armed rising by the Communist Party of China against the Kuomintang's crackdowns, and the Vietnamese who fought in it, including Nguyễn Sơn, Hồ Tùng Mậu and Lê Hồng Sơn. The final part, The Epic Still Continues, follows those who stayed on in Guangzhou after the uprising failed, and their role in founding Vietnam's party, army and cross-border ties.
For visitors, the context adds depth to a Hanoi stop. The museum sits at 19 Ngọc Hà Street in Ba Đình Ward — walking distance from the Hồ Chí Minh Mausoleum complex, the Presidential Palace grounds and the One Pillar Pagoda, so it slots easily into a half-day of sightseeing. Officials framing the opening also tied it to the current Vietnam–China Tourism Cooperation Year and a 2024–28 cooperation agreement between the Hồ Chí Minh Museum and the Guangdong Museum of Revolutionary History, hinting that more linked heritage programming between the two countries may follow.
Why it matters to travellers: if you're in Hanoi between now and late February, this is a rare, time-limited look at a chapter of history that usually lives in textbooks — and it pairs neatly with a Guangzhou leg of a trip, where the same story unfolded. History-minded visitors and anyone curious about how Vietnam's modern story began will get the most out of it. Original reporting by Vietnam News Life.
