Thai Nguyen

The city played an important role in Vietnam's struggles for independence during the French colonial era. The Thái Nguyên uprising in 1917 was the "largest and most destructive" anti-colonial rebellion in French Indochina between the Pacification of Tonkin in the 1880s and the Nghe-Tinh Revolt of 1930–31. In August 1917, Vietnamese prison guards mutinied at the Thai Nguyen Penitentiary, the largest one in the region. With the aid of the freed inmates – common criminals as well as political prisoners – and weapons captured from the provincial arsenal, the rebels were able to take control of local government offices. They then established a fortified perimeter, executed French colonial officials and local collaborators, and called for a general uprising. …

Thái Nguyên City is located on the Cầu River. Its area is approximately 189.705 km2 (73.246 sq mi) and the population was 420,000 in 2018.

Thái Nguyên City has long been famous throughout Vietnam for the quality of its green tea, with Tân Cương Commune producing the most widely recognized brand. Since 2007 it has shipped an average of about 22,000 tonnes of tea domestically and 7,500 tonnes overseas, to Algeria, France, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Pakistan, and Taiwan. In an effort to boost exports, the city hosted its First International Tea Festival in November 2011. The effort seems to have paid off. During the first five months of 2012, it exported 49,000 tonnes, an increase of over 15% from the prior year, with Pakistan its biggest customer. In 1959, the city also became the center of a nascent metallurgical industry, with the creation of Thái Nguyên Iron and Steel Company (TISCO), thanks to its ample local resources of iron ore and coal. The new mill produced its first cast iron in November 1963. …