Nha Trang ward

Formation

On 16 June 2025 the Standing Committee of the National Assembly adopted Resolution 1667/NQ-UBTVQH15 on the arrangement of the commune-level units of Khánh Hòa province. Item 49 reads, in the resolution's own words, "Sắp xếp toàn bộ diện tích tự nhiên, quy mô dân số của các phường Vạn Thạnh, Lộc Thọ, Vĩnh Nguyên, Tân Tiến và Phước Hòa thành phường mới có tên gọi là phường Nha Trang". The resolution took effect on the day it was adopted and required the new units to operate from 1 July 2025; after the arrangement the province had 65 commune-level units, 48 communes, 16 wards and one special zone^[1].

The four-ward layout was not the first proposal. On 24 April 2025 the city announced a revised scheme with four wards in place of an earlier three, and the figures published that day for the central ward, 47.12 km² and 136,118 people, are the ones later carried by the provincial portal^[9][10][2]. Two of the five constituent wards were themselves new: Tân Tiến had been created and Vạn Thạnh enlarged on 1 November 2024 under Resolution 1196/NQ-UBTVQH15^[7].

The ward's name is the former city's. Vietnamese Wikipedia records that the name was inherited from the city, and the province's own article lists phường Nha Trang as the provincial seat (tỉnh lỵ)^[3][8].

Territory

The ward borders the sea to the east, Tây Nha Trang ward to the west, Nam Nha Trang ward to the south and Bắc Nha Trang ward to the north, where the boundary is the Cái river^[3]. Its Wikidata point is 12.24111 N, 109.19111 E^[5].

The five former wards were of very unequal size. The table in the Vietnamese Wikipedia article on the former city gives Vạn Thạnh 1.35 km², Lộc Thọ 1.40 km², Vĩnh Nguyên 42.62 km², Tân Tiến 1.34 km² and Phước Hòa 0.94 km²^[6]. Those figures sum to 47.65 km², more than the 47.12 km² of the catalogue^[2]; the sources do not explain the gap. Almost all of the area is Vĩnh Nguyên, the seafront ward that carried the islands of the bay.

Islands

The islands of the southern bay came into the ward with Vĩnh Nguyên. Hòn Tre, the largest island in Nha Trang Bay, has an area of over 32.50 km² and lies 5 km east of the former city and 3.5 km from Cầu Đá port; its population is concentrated in the hamlets of Bích Đầm and Vũng Ngán^[12]. Bích Đầm, a tổ dân phố of the former Vĩnh Nguyên ward about 15 km from the centre, covers 250.91 ha and had 228 households and 867 people when the provincial People's Committee recognised it as a community tourism site in March 2025^[11]. Vinpearl opened a resort on Hòn Tre in 2003 and in 2007 a 3,320 m cable car linking the island to the mainland^[22].

Hòn Miễu belongs to the Trí Nguyên hamlet of the ward, 1 km from the mainland, with an area of about 3 km²^[13]. Hòn Tằm, over 110 ha, lies 7 km south-east of the centre^[14]. Hòn Mun is 10 km from Cầu Đá port, inside a marine protected area of 160 km², of which 122 km² is sea and 38 km² islands^[15]. In June 2022 the Standing Committee of the provincial Party asked the provincial People's Committee to suspend diving tourism at the areas of Hòn Mun where the coral had degraded, and Tuổi Trẻ reported the suspension on 22 June 2022^[16]. Bích Đầm, Vũng Ngán, Trí Nguyên and Cầu Đá are all among the ward's 36 tổ dân phố^[3].

Institutions and landmarks

Dam Market (Chợ Đầm), the central market of the ward, is a lotus-shaped building 66.5 m across with 5,270 m² of floor on two levels, reopened on 3 February 1980 after reconstruction^[17]. Nha Trang railway station, at 17 Thái Nguyên, opened on 2 September 1936 and stands at km 1314+930 of the North-South line^[20]. The port of Nha Trang, at 12°12' N 109°13' E in the ward, is a cargo port combined with tourism whose 90 m steel pier dates from the 1960s^[18].

At Cầu Đá the Institute of Oceanography, founded on 14 September 1922, occupies 1 Cầu Đá^[19], and the Naval Academy, founded on 26 April 1955 as the Coastal Training School, occupies 30 Trần Phú^[21]. The ward People's Committee is at 42 Lê Thánh Tôn and the Party Committee at 05 Quang Trung^[2][23].

Administration

The ward is divided into 36 tổ dân phố, whose names preserve the former wards and their quarters: Lộc Thọ 1 to 4, Phước Hòa 1 and 2, Tân Lập 1 and 2, Phước Tân, Phước Tiến, Vạn Thạnh, Vạn Thắng, Xương Huân and Vĩnh Nguyên among them. Before 1 July 2026 the ward was divided into 75 tổ dân phố^[3]; a plan published in June 2026 under Decree 185 of 26 May 2026 kept 7 of them and regrouped the other 68 into 29, giving 36^[24]. Its density of 2,889 people per km²^[3] is the second highest of the four wards, behind Tây Nha Trang, because the sparsely settled islands are counted in its area.