Hue: the last imperial capital

Hue is a provincial city of modest size built around a very large monument. The Capital City, the outer citadel, is a walled square on the north bank of the Perfume River, and people live inside it: there are houses, schools and markets within the walls. Inside that is the Imperial City, and inside that, what remains of the Forbidden Purple City, reserved for the emperor and his household. UNESCO describes the river winding through these enclosures, with Ngu Binh hill on the south bank acting as a protective screen.

Be ready for absence. Much of the Imperial City was destroyed in the twentieth century, and large areas are grass, foundations or recent reconstruction. Visitors who expect a Forbidden City on the scale of Beijing are disappointed. Visitors who come with a guide who can describe what stood where, and why the plan follows the five directions and the five elements, leave having understood a capital rather than looked at a ruin.

The tombs are the other half of Hue, and for many people the better half. Each emperor planned his own, and each says something about him. Minh Mang’s is a long, formal axis of courts and lakes. Tu Duc’s is a garden he used in his lifetime. Khai Dinh’s, from the twentieth century, climbs a hillside in concrete and ceramic mosaic, mixing Vietnamese and European ideas in a way some visitors find moving and others find garish.

The months from February to April are the most comfortable: mild, mostly dry, and before the heat. Summer is hot but workable if you visit the citadel at 07:00 and the tombs early. October and November are the months to avoid if your dates are fixed; floods in Hue are common enough that we plan alternatives for any booking in those weeks.

Site tickets, from the sources we keep on the heritage table: the Imperial City 200,000 VND per adult; the tombs of Minh Mang, Khai Dinh and Tu Duc 150,000 VND each; combined tickets for two to four sites between about 200,000 and 530,000 VND. Check before you travel. Hotels in Hue cost less than in Hoi An for a comparable room, which makes a third night here a modest addition to a trip.