Haiphong (Hải Phòng, haːj˧˩ fawŋ͡m˨˩), or Hai Phong, is the third-largest city in Vietnam. An industrial city, Haiphong is located at the mouth of the Cấm River in northern Vietnam and population is about 2.389 million people as of 2022. Haiphong is the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River Delta. In the past, Haiphong was the first place with electricity in Vietnam.
Haiphong was founded in 1887 as a major seaport city of Vietnam. In 1888, the president of the French Third Republic, Sadi Carnot, promulgated a decree to establish Haiphong. From 1954 to 1975, Haiphong served as the most important maritime city of North Vietnam, and it became one of direct-controlled municipalities of a reunified Vietnam with Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in 1976.
Haiphong has a Human Development Index of 0.782 (high), ranking fourth among all municipalities and provinces of Vietnam.
Haiphong was the home of Lê Chân, one of the female generals under the command of the Trưng Sisters who rose against Chinese domination in 40 AD and ruled until their defeat in 43 AD. Lê Chân was know to have established a place called Hải Phòng Tần Thủ (Frequent Defence sea port) during the war against general Ma Yuan of the Han dynasty.
Centuries later under the reign of Nguyễn Emperor Tự Đức, the area earned the appellation: Hải-Dương thương-chính quan-phòng ("The trading defensive area of Hải Dương Province").
By the 19th century, at the end of Tự Đức's reign, the Hang Kenh Communal House in what is now the city's Le Chan District was made the administrative seat of An Dương District, restoring its regional importance. The area by then had developed into a sizable commercial port.
At the eve of the French conquest in 1881, a typhoon ravaged the area, killing about 3,000 people in and around Haiphong. Despite the damages, Haiphong was developed by the French to serve as Indochina's main naval base over the ensuing decades.