The Imperial Capital City of Hue

The former imperial city of Hue is known for it's significant cultural and historical value. It contains the huge Citadel, within which is most incredible Forbidden City. Hue also has many ancient pagodas and tombs. Like the Forbidden City in Beijing, the one in Hue is enormous, but it's very different. It's more earthy and gritty and somehow foreboding. Stripped of all the wood superstructure and silk tapestries and artifacts, it's only a ghost of what was once a rival to the Khmer empire. It feels old, very, and we can only imagine what an impressive sight it must have been with all the royalty, military and inhabitants. We also visited the tomb of Emperor Tu Duc. It's set on a pine-forested hill and lotus ponds with a forest of fragrant frangipani. We were told that when Tu Duc died he was buried along with a great treasure. All those involved with his burial were executed to keep his resting place (and treasure) safe. In fact, the huge flagstones around his tomb were removed by the French in an attempt to find that treasure (unsuccessfully!). The Tu Hieu pagoda was very special. It was established in 1848 by the imperial eunuchs. Since they could not have children, the eunuchs financially secured the temple so they could have future generations of monks available to perform necessary ceremonies for their next life. In fact, we were lucky enough to stumble on a group of the monks at prayer.