The Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area covers an area of 2,356 sq km (910 sq mi). It is composed of 12 urban wards and 6 rural districts. The rural districts make up more than 90 percent of the total land area and extend from near the Cambodian border in the west to the South China Sea at the mouth of the Sai Gon River in the east. The vast majority of the population, however, lives in the 12 urban wards.
The downtown area, in Ward One, is home to most of the city's government offices, civic buildings, and well-known monuments. The modern Hall of Reunification (formerly the Presidential Palace, completed in 1966) is located here, as is the ornate City Hall (1908), built by the French during the colonial period. City Hall is now the headquarters of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, which governs the city. Ben Thanh market, the art museum (formerly the colonial governor's residence), and the former United States embassy (now the headquarters of the state-run Vietnamese Oil Company) are all located downtown.
