Hue

River boats

Hello
We have spent the last 3 days in Hue which is the old capital of Vietnam, during the Nguyen dynasty before communism.  The Imperial city was built by the Nguyen dynasty which ruled from the mid 19th century to 1940's.   Each emperor had many wives and children. His concubines, servants, bodyguards and eunuchs also lived in the Imperial city.  Some of his mandarins or administrators  lived here also.  The Citadel is fashioned after the Forbidden Palace in  Beijing.  It encompasses 6 km. 
The Citadel is surrounded by 7-10 m thick walls with a moat outside.  Inside is the Dai Trieu Nghi (great rites courtyard) and the Hoa Palace (throne hall)  where the Emperor held court, met with foreign dignitaries and dealt with administrative issues.  The Citadel has three entrance gates, the middle one is only for the Emperor, the other two were for mandarins and court officials.  There are two more gates for soldiers, elephants, and commoners
The Forbidden Purple city was where the emperor lived with his "family" lived, only his family, concubine and trusted officials were allowed into the city.  There is a royal library which was destroyed, but is being rebuilt.
Unfortunately, the area was bombed during the French war and left to decay.  Some of it is being restored with grants from Unesco, but the work is progressing slowly, as all construction work does here.
We also visited the Thien  Mu Pagoda which was built in1601. It houses the oldest monastery in Hue and has lovely peaceful grounds and a seven storey tower with each storey containing a different altar to Buddha.  We then visited the tomb of Minh Mang.  All thee emperors designed their own tombs and had them built before they died.  There are many tombs in the surrounding countryside.
We traveled to the Temple by river boat, each boat is home to a family.  They live on the boat and take tourists for rides down the river.  They cook, sleep, and raise their families on these boats.

building in the Imperial City

The grounds of the tomb of Minh Mang

Tower at Thien Mu Pagoda

Almost all the roads are under construction, but they tackle huge stretches of road and never seem  finish it before they start something else.  A lot of the work is still done by hand, which accounts for some of the slow progress, but I think they lack much in the way of machinery and an overall plan.  It takes a long time to travel anywhere in Vietnam, about 3 times longer than home.