where is vietnam

Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia, on the eastern coast of the Indochina Peninsula, shaped like a long, narrow “S” along the South China Sea.

Quick Scoop

• Vietnam lies in the Northern and Eastern hemispheres of the Earth.

• It sits on the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, between about 8° and 24° north latitude.

• To the north, it borders China; to the west, it borders Laos and Cambodia.

• To the east and south, it has a long coastline along the South China Sea, with the Gulf of Tonkin to the northeast and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest.

• The country is long and narrow north‑to‑south (about 1,650 km) and roughly S‑shaped on the map.

• Its capital city is Hanoi, in the north; Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in the south.

Simple mental map

If you imagine Southeast Asia on a map:

1. Find China, then look just south of it along the coast.
2. Trace the long coastal strip running down toward the equator along the South China Sea—that slender strip is Vietnam.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.