During my recent brief visit to Vietnam， a Vietnamese friend recommended me to visit the tunnels of Cu Chi， saying that my knowledge of the country and its people would be incomplete without a trip to the tunnels. On the map， Cu Chi is just a negligible place about 60 kilometers out of downtown Saigon， but it boasts the peerless underground structure in the world. I was intrigued.

It took us less than an hour by bus to reach Cu Chi. We followed a small trail into the jungles while our guide explained the tunnels to us in Chinese with a heavy accent. According to the guide， the tunnels of Cu Chi which extend more than 200 kilometers and are in three layers were created during the war years. As one of the three major places of historical interest around Ho Chi Minh City， the tunnels symbolize the Vietnamese heroism and nationalism.

The guide told us that the tunnels had numerous secret entrances. An entrance could be inside a hut on a hillside or through a dead tree stump in woods. Our entry point was located in a non-descriptive thatched shed. The narrow hole was so low that we had to bend our bodies to enter. Crawling forward in the tunnel， I was under the impression that the complex was probably just a newer version of the tunnels the Chinese people had dug and used in northern China in our war of resistance against Japanese invaders in the 1940s. The visit soon negated my assumption. The underground labyrinth is a giant defense fortification. You can travel to everywhere and you see all kinds of places: war rooms， storage houses， hospital wards， canteens， meeting rooms， schools. There are some places spacious enough to screen a movie for an audience of hundreds. The only thing the tunnels don’t have is sunshine. The tunnels once were the battleground itself. Some entrances were protected by pitfalls with sharpened bamboo poles and booby traps.

The tunnels near Saigon were a big headache for American troops. Military actions were launched to destroy the underground network. It is said that thousands upon thousands of American soldiers， supported by cannons， tanks， airplanes and armored-vehicles， came to clean out the tunnels. Fierce battles broke out. A wall in the tunnels displayed photos of heroes who fought in defense battles. A Vietnamese girl and several other guerrillas fought for days and nights inside the tunnels and they killed 107 enemies and destroyed a tank.

A display area in the tunnels shows shell shrapnel， bomb fragments， and remains of aircraft. The tunnels of Cu Chi withstood numerous onslaughts and persisted for 21 years until 1975 when Vietnamese soldiers launched a massive campaign from there and stormed into Saigon. Today， the tunnels are under the state protection as a historical and cultural heritage. It attracts visitors from all over the world all the year round.#8194;□