Hue - A glimpse into Vietnam's Imperial History

We spent only one day and one night in Hue and visited three places on the recommendation of our gracious hosts. As an aside, the staff at each hotel / homestay have been so helpful and friendly! Whoever we may come across in the streets (mostly hagglers and vendors hassling you to buy things you don't need!) it is always a pleasure to return back to our room and be greeted by smiles and forthcoming advice. Hue was the capital city of Vietnam when the Nguyen Dynasty ruled the country, and although we visited only one tomb of the Emperor Tu Duc, there are many others to see. His body actually isn't buried at the official tomb (which was elaborately planned before his death) because many precious jewels and treasures were left with his body. So valuable, that the 200 men (servants I think) that built the tomb were beheaded after it's completion to keep the location secret! Many of the Emperors in the times of ruling dynasties were indulgent - Tu Duc had 104 wives! However, he had no children. This was thought to have been attributed to his contraction of smallpox. I'll stop there with the boring historical information! I loved this part of our trip because I enjoy reading history very much, Adam takes photos and I read the signs, haha!

Our next stop was a Buddhist Pagoda, it seemed to still be in use and there were monks (and child monks I'm not sure what you call them) tending to gardens and bonsai trees! The entrance to the temple itself was guarded by huge plaster warriors who took their job very seriously (see the photos on the next post).

Lastly, we visited the Hue Citadel. Sadly, it suffered severe damage from both the French and American wars (Vietnamese call the Vietnam War The American War - no surprise there) and large sections of it are in complete ruin. While we were there we could see one building (a library) that had miraculously not been hit by bombs, was being restored. The Citadel was / is surrounded by a 10 Km long wall and a moat. The front entrance has five massive doors and the middle one was reserved solely for the Emperor and his wives and aides. Above these doors was where he would sit on special occasions to be seen by all (kind of like the Queen on her balcony!). At the centre of the Citadel is what's called the Forbidden Purple City. This was where the royal family resided. They even had their own theatre and a tennis court!

The highlights for me here were; the entrance pond full of huge carp and the DVD playing inside one of the buildings showing a 3D reconstruction of the Citadel in it's original state.

The damage to such a beautiful feat of building and architecture, of which the creation spanned about 30 years, was devastating. I wondered how American people must feel when they visit such a place knowing the mistakes made by their country at the time. We actually haven't met many Americans in our travels, although we have seen and heard a lot of French people and I'm inspired to revisit my Year 7 and 8 learning of French!

Hue was a not to be missed part of Vietnam, and if we had had the time I'm sure I would have eagerly soaked up much more information about Vietnam's rich history of a struggle towards independence.