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Hué

Hué
The Complex of Hué Monuments is an unique example of a planned and fully defended feudal capital city in southeast Asia. Hué was the imperial capital of Vietnam between 1802 and 1945.

The site consists of the Capital City in Hué, and associated monuments outside of the city. The latter includes the tombs of the emperors Gia Long, Minh Mang, Thieu Tri, Tu Doc, Duc Duc, Dong Khanh, and Khai Dinh. And a string of temples, pagodas and other spiritual sites.

The Capital City is a complex enclosed within defensive walls. It holds residences, palaces, gates, with the Forbidden Purple City at its heart.

Year Decision Comments
1993 Inscribed Reasons for inscription



Visit March 2011

Glazed tiles all over the place! That was the first thing that struck me when entering the Citadel. Not only the common Chinese yellow roof tiles, but also a kind of porcelain mosaics that I had never encountered before - fragments of blue & white vases that have been put together to form new designs on the outer walls of buildings and gates.

The Citadel is a pleasantly quiet place to walk around for a couple of hours. It's a very busy site near the entrance gate, but I was almost on my own at the back of the complex and at the fringes. My favourite building here was the Truong San Residence, with its great yellow entrance gate. This and most of the other objects look very recently painted and/or restored. Over-restored maybe, I wonder what our Forum would have to say about this one.

A visit to the Hué monuments is not complete without seeing some of the places outside the city. For that I rented a bicycle and set off south. The first kilometers out of Hué are easy going. Every 10 minutes or so there's an interesting stop - I visited Nam Giao esplanade, heard the monks chanting at the very peaceful Tu Hieu pagoda and joined the busloads of tour groups again at the Tomb of Tu Duc. There is a "Tomb" here (though empty), but it actually was more of a country house & pleasure park for the emperor. It still is a grand place which takes about an hour to visit.

After that I had planned to visit some more tombs. But the road quickly deteriorated, the signposting got more erratic, the sun warmer and the hills higher. At one moment I even found myself and my bicycle on the very dusty AH1 highway between Hanoi and Saigon. When I encountered a turn with a sign "Hué 10 kms", I quickly decided to turn back and be pleased with the things I had managed to see that day.

More photos can be found in the Picture Gallery

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Reviews

Thibault Magnien (France):
I visited the citadel of Hue and the associated tombs in february 2012. In spite of the rain, I found the place amazing, especially the Khai Dinh tomb which offered greatly decorated rooms. The best way to go to the different tombs if you have not a lot of time, is to book a tour in the city, to visit the citadel, the pagoda and the three main tombs in one day.
Date posted: March 2012
John Booth (New Zealand):
As Els says, the tombs of Hue are widely scattered, some more than 10 kms from the city centre. But they are reachable by taxi, or by boat along the Perfume River. One that I visited was the colourful tomb of Ming Mang, where you pass through several gates and temples before reaching the actual tomb on a hillside at the rear of the complex. Another was the tomb of Khai Dinh, a complex of grey stone with lots of steps and elaborate stone decorations.
While touring the district I also visited the tombs of Tu Duc and Duc Duc as well as the Thien Mu Pagoda.
Inside Hue itself the huge Citadel, a complex of many differing styles filled a large area. The memorial house in Phan Dinh Phung Street and the An Dinh Palace were much smaller, but were all within walking distance of the city centre.
Date posted: March 2012
bonny (australia):
Hue is a greta village if you are into teh whole history scene the imperial palace is quite interesting so is teh pagoda in which the dude who poured petrol on himself, protesting against teh war in teh vietname war. his car, in which he drove to saigon in remains in its own garage , viewed by tourist. there is a wonderful restaurant mentioned in the lonely panet which is run by an deaf man and his daughter teh food is fantastic and both the man and his daughter are very hospitable.
i however found hue quite boring seeing taht i dont' really like the history stuff
 


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