Day 4/5 of North Vietnam Trip, Hue on January 11/12, 2018

After checking into hotel in Hue, we rented a motorcycle and headed for Hue Imperial City. We planned to visit this UNESCO World Heritage site this afternoon before it closed at 5, and visiting tombs of various kings tomorrow morning before hopping onto a bus ride to Hoi An tomorrow afternoon.

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Hue Imperial City

We arrived at the entrance of Hue Imperial City at half past 3, which left us an hour and half before it closed at 5. But it seemed that staff in Hue Imperial City were never interested in rushing people off and close the grounds. We eventually left Hue Imperial City at 17:20 as it's getting dark. And to me, it seemed that ghosts of all the emperors, rather than staff, were the reason you want to leave before dark.

It's said that there are two surviving Forbidden Cities, the one in all splendor in Beijing, China, and the undistinguished war-torn crumbling one here in Hue. As a replica of the first, the latter one would never rival the first in majesty. But since it contained less pedestal and fewer lengthy stairs and was oftentimes overgrown, it felt more like a historical ruin.
And yes, many of the buildings in Hue Imperial City were rebuilt in the last couple of decades, so it looked more like a museum than an active archeology site in the wilderness. The downside? The rebuilt buildings looked too good and too scripted and too artificial to be authentic.

As for the Meridian Gate, it was constructed in 1833 by emperor Minh Mạng. It was modeled after the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China but as a replica it couldn't be as grand (maybe partly because the Forbidden City in Beijing was regularly painted over in authoritarian red). So they described it as "traditional Vietnamese Nguyen style", which did prove a point. I observed big chunks of green on its eaves, which in China was an ominous color belonging to the lowest social rank. The Gate was used by the sovereign as an observation point for troop movements and ceremonies. The king would use central door while his officials could only use the side doors. The last king of Vietnam abdicated from throne on Meridian Gate in 1945. The Gate was damaged but survived in the Vietnam War.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_Gate_(Hu%E1%BA%BF)

Điện Khôn Thái Area

Buildings in this area were completely destroyed in the Vietnam War.

After that, we made our way West to the Cung Diên Thọ area through a long colonnade, passing some gardens in the palace.

Cung Diên Thọ Area

This part of the Palace was first constructed in 1804 and rebuilt in 1820. It housed the empress dowager.

Like most surviving buildings in Hue Imperial City, the interior of Cung Diên Thọ looked very much, I shall say, refurbished. Modern tiles and modern furniture, I guess the original ones were all plundered in the Vietnam War.
After that, we wandered into a nearby building that housed a temple. Some staff happened to be managing offerings on the altar, which was quite spiritual.

After that, we went farther South to Thế Miếu area.

Thế Miếu Area

Constructed between 1821-1822, The To Mieu Temple was dedicated to the Nguyen emperors. During French occupation (1884-1954), only seven emperors were honored: Gia Long, Minh Mang, Thieu Tri, Tu Duc, Kien Phuc, Dong Khanh and Khai Dinh. Emperors Ham Nghi, Thanh Thai and Duy Tan, who were known to be patriotic, were added in 1959. The To Mieu Temple was restored during 1997-1998. Source: Information Board

Thế Miếu was designed with space to honor 9 emperors as 9 is an auspicious number in local culture. However, until the Nguyen Dynasty was conquered by the French, only seven emperors ever entered Thế Miếu to be honored.

The interior of Thế Miếu was a shoes-off no-photograph area, so I won't post any photos here. The kings were honored in a similar fashion below.

Between Thế Miếu and Hiển Lâm Các there were Nine Dynastic Urns cast to display the emperor's sovereignty.

Click here for information board about Nine Dynastic Urns

Nine Dynastic Urns were cast from 1835 to 1837 under the reign of emperor Minh Mang (1820-1841).
Each Urn was decorated with 17 bars-reliefs and named in accordance with the posthumous titles of Nguyen Emperors worshipped in the Mieu Temple. In general, nine urns share the similarity in shape and weight, however, they are diversified in types and decorative patterns that signify the universe, animals, trees, artefacts or toponym. They symbolize the unification of the country as well as the orthodoxy and the lastingness of the dynasty. Data and weight of each urn were carved on its rim. The heaviest urn is about 2.6 tons and lightest 1.9. The current nine dynastic urns were cast 19th century.

After that it was Hiển Lâm Các, whose heavily renovated interior had been turned into a small museum displaying few items about Hue Imperial City.

Click here for information board about Hiển Lâm Các

This pavilion, erected between 1821 and 1822, was a memorial for the Nguyen emperors and meritorious mandarins for their outstanding contributions to the dynasty. During 1822 and 1945, the height of Hien Lam pavilion, 13 meters, was the height limit to all buildings in the Citadel of Hue.

Click here for information board about Gate of Thế Miếu

Mieu Mon was constructed in 1821-1822 as the main gate of The Mieu Temple where Nguyen emperors were worshipped. It is a triple gate, one of the typical styles of Hue royal architectures with many overlapped roofs in distinguished colors (yellow, red, green or blue). It is decorated with such themes as four holy animals (dragon, unicorn, turtle, phoenix), four seasons (spring, summer, autumn, winter), four sacred symbols (apricot, orchid, chrysanthemum, bamboo), eight fairy's accessories, and so on reflecting the Oriental philosophy (Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism). The five-claw dragon is the symbol of the emperor and imperial power; the phoenix symbolizes the peace and nobleness; the kylin (unicorn) represents the intelligence, kindness and tolerance; the turtle stands for the longevity; the apricot shows the purity and the strong vitality; and the fish represents the good luck and prosperity.

After that, we headed East since East Gate was the official visitor exit of the palace.

Duyệt Thị Đường Area

This area was made of royal library, theater, kitchen and guardhouse. Most of it was destroyed in wars.

Thái Bình Lâu was probably the most decorated building in the palace as of now.

A musical school in a royal palace? Not bad.

Before we exited the palace, we paid a brief visit to the Thái Miếu area. Similar to Thế Miếu which was on the other side of the palace, nine emperors were honored in Thái Miếu. The main difference to me was that the emperors honored in Thái Miếu were before Nguyễn family conquered the entire Vietnam, but the ones in Thế Miếu were after that.

After exiting, we walked back to the Meridian Gate and retrieved our bike.

Hue stands roughly at the mid point of North and South Vietnam, which made it the frontline of Vietnam War. Reading online (Link in Vietnamese), I found that this flag tower had bore the flags of Nguyễn Dynasty, French Colony and Democratic North Vietnam, and back and forth as control of the city shifted from one party to another. Quite some history it had witnessed.

As for the tour of Hue Imperial City, I didn't have as detailed knowledge of it before we started the tour (I once thought it consisted of ruins along central South-North axis and that's it). And we were trying to cover all the places before its scheduled closing time. So here's a list of places we didn't visit in the Palace:

Cung Trường Sanh

Located in the North-West of the Palace housing empress dowager.

Hưng Miếu which

Renovated Building North of Thế Miếu.

Part of Vườn Ngự Uyển

Vườn Ngự Uyển

Located in the North-East of the Palace as a royal garden and house where emperor lived.

Phủ Nội Vụ

Support buildings.

By the way, we had seen electric sightseeing carts running around the Palace, as the Palace was expansive and, depending on person, could be legwork demanding. I think there's a parking lot outside the moat in the South-East side of the Palace where tickets to such sightseeing carts together with the Palace can be bought (and I guess a tour guide would accompany each cart throughout the Palace). But given our limited timeframe, we didn't check that out.

But overall, this was a quite fulfilling two-hour tour of what used to be a royal palace.

Fast forward to Jan 12, we woke up early in the morning and set out to visit the few tombs of emperors scattered outside the city. But we made Thien Mu Pagoda, a 17-th Century Pagoda that went through rise and fall of Nguyễn Dynasty our first stop of the day.

We were booked on a 1pm bus to Hoi An. So just like yesterday, our itinerary this morning was a little bit tight.

Thien Mu Pagoda

According to the royal annals, while touring the vicinity, Hoang, the first Nguyễn lords, was told of the local legend in which an old lady, known as Thiên Mụ (literally "celestial lady"), dressed in red and blue sat at the site, rubbing her cheeks. She foretold that a lord would come and erect a pagoda on the hill to pray for the country's prosperity. She then vanished after making her prophecy. Upon hearing this, Hoang ordered the construction of a temple at the site, thus the beginning of Thiên Mụ Tự (Pagoda of the Celestial Lady).en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagoda_of_the_Celestial_Lady#cite_ref-prof_2-2

 

The fun part of Thien Mu Pagoda was that, many steles with engravings from different emperors were left very much intact. I studied one of those for a while, and found some king was appointing officials, issuing decrees and releasing tax cuts, pretty much like modern day presidents. I would definitely stay around those steles should I have more time.

After that, we made our way South to Minh Mang Tomb.

The entrance of Minh Mang Tomb was on its Eastern side. On Google Maps, after crossing Perfume River on route QL1A, there's a little trail that leads directly to the entrance. However, we were puzzled for a while as all the locals seemed to direct us onto a huge detour around the site on route QL49. Guess the shortcut was dirt road and not suitable for traffic.

Minh Mang Tomb

Tomb of the second emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty, where Minh Mang personally picked this location as his resting place. Lakes on this site resembled the shape of Chinese character Minh (明).

Similar to the emperor tombs I visited in Changping, Beijing, China, the actual tomb was concealed from public view under a small greeny hill. But the difference was that there's no passage around the hill for visitors to circle around in pilgrimage.

After that, we made our way to Vua Khải Định Tomb.

Vua Khải Định Tomb

The tomb for Khải Định, the twelfth and second last Emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty was built during 1920 to 1931. The Emperor worked closely with the government of France, and by the end of his reign he was considered to be nothing more than "a salaried employee of the French government. So expectedly, this tomb is a blend of Western and Eastern architecture. The emperor raised taxation to fund the lavish mausoleum, and was thus very unpopular amongst the people of Vietnam.Chapuis, Oscar (2000). The last emperors of Vietnam: from Tu Duc to Bao Dai. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 27. ISBN 0-313-31170-6.

It felt to a degree a miniature Great Wall of China to me. Both were built on bloody tax money in an extravagant way that offered arguably little utility at their time, and both were marvel to my eyes nowadays. Well, Vua Khải Định Tomb would never rival the Great Wall in its magnificence, but after seeing enough traditional Vietnamese buildings, this blend of East and West would be a refreshing conclusion before heading off to Hoi An.

Oh, by the way, queen of Khải Định actually lived till 1980 before being buried here next to her husband, that's quite a long life.

Unlike other traditional tombs, here tomb of Vua Khải Định was stored in a palace building, not underneath a hill.

And the sarcophagus of Vua Khải Định was placed just in the next room, open to all. Though I don't want to post photos here.

END