The Imperial City of Hue

After a relatively short commute of 4 hours, we arrived in Hue - a small city of 300,000 on the banks of the Perfume River. Our drive was pretty straight forward and crossing the Hai An Pass was unbelievable for its scenery and views out towards the South China Sea. We stopped midway on the top of the Pass but of course, no stop goes past without someone trying to sell us something. After 20 minutes of sales onslaught I capitulated and bought a pack of Mentos - if only to stop the sales pitch!

Hue (pronounced "Way") was the former imperial capital and home to the Nguyen Dynasty from 1802 to 1945 when it was abolished during the Indochina Wars with the French and the powers of the Emperors were passed to Ho Chi Minh who was President at the time and was focused on the unification of the country. The imperial dynasties of course did not recover. Hue is a city of 300,000 on the banks of the Perfume River which empties into the South China Sea about 15 kms from the city centre. To the west and over the mountains about 70 km lies the border with Laos.



We only had two nights in Hue so on the morning we arrived we headed to the Citadel -the "walled" city that was named a World Heritage Site in 1993. The walled Citadel is on the northern banks of the river. For some reason, we had little to no expectations of what we were entering. Once we did, we were blown away by the architecture, gardens and the history that lie before us. While the Imperial City was heavily bombed during the American War, the UN and nations such as Poland and Germany have been excavating and painstakingly redeveloping the old city. These pictures hopefully illustrate some of the beauty of the buildings including the Forbidden City, the Queen Mother's house, Library and the gardens that surrounded the Citadel and the City itself.



On our second (and only full) day in Hue, we chartered a boat and guide to take us to the Royal Tombs. It was custom that the emperors could not be buried within the City and so their tombs are scattered over the countryside. Of course these were not just any "tombs" - they were grand, opulent dedications to the emperors, their families and in some cases the mandarins (read: bureaucrats) that supported their reign. We visted two tombs - the first was of the 4th Emperor - Tu Doc who reigned for 36 years (died in 1883). Because he did not have a son (although his concubine was over 100...) we designed the site himself over a period of 16 years including writing over 4000 poems. Over 200 soldiers died working on building the site. He also wrote his own eulogy because he did not have a son (who's job it would be to do so).





Motorbikes (much to Kristen's horror) brought us and the kids to the second set of tombs - this belonging to Khai Dinh who reigned from 1916 - 1925. These were significantly different as this Emperor was heavily influenced by European architecture and this is reflected in the buildings. Khai Dinh was the second last emperor before the end of the Nguyen Dynasty. It was his son who handed over power to Ho Chi Minh and his son retired to France. He is the only emperor from this dynasty not buried near Hue - he is buried in Paris.

The motorbikes took us back to the boat where we had a fantastic lunch. These families that own the boats also live on the baots so these (very small and modest) vehicles are like sitting and eating in their living room. We had fresh fish from the river, spring rolls, tofu and vegetables.

We took the boat to the Thien Mu Pagoda built in 1601 and the oldest in Hue. It was also the centre of buddhist protests against opression in the 20th century.

Hai (pronounced "Hi") was our guide and he was great - very knowledgeable of the history and stories of the day. The same unfortunately cannot be said for our boat hosts who were not pleased that we did not buy more from them (everyone is trying to sell you something and it gets a little overwhelming) and Hai was not pleased with their refusal to take us closer to places so that they could avoid boat parking fees. Despite the crankiness, it was a great day and the history and architecture made up for it all.


We finshed off the morning of Day Three by walking into the markets and looking for more temples. The market was full of baskets of spices as well as fish, veggies and fruit. We had the best meal that day for lunch at a place run by a deaf man who was so incredibly warm and hospitable. It was another scorcher of a day and put as many fans on us and served us great local fare.




Our overnight train left Hue at 3 p.m. so we made our way back to the hotel to pick up the bags and head to the train station. Another 13 hours on the train to look forward to....on to Hanoi!