Hue's temples and the Citadel

Entrance  to the Forbidden City,
 Imperial  Citadel, Hue

Entrance to the Imperial Citadel in Hue.
Severely damaged in the Vietnam war
it is undergoing extensive restoration.

We didn't allow enough time in Hue realising that we needed to allow some chill time and not try and fill every day; it catches up in due course. So we decided not to do the trip to the DMZ          (Demilitarised Zone ) as we had started to flag.

We did do several temples and the old Imperial Citadel, actually only C19th/C20th. The Citadel was a little disappointing; not really all that old; mainly during the period of French rule when the emperors continued to stay on the throne as puppet rulers. However, there were one or two interesting aspects to be appreciated. An appreciation of what a feudal position the emperor held with tens of wives and hundreds of concubines; some fascinating artwork including detailed pictures and poems painted onto the back of glass to be viewed through it and the efforts now being made to restore what is a major tourist attraction.

Novice monk at Thien Mu

Approach to the Thien
Mu pagoda near Hue.
Still an active Budhist
temple

Our favourite visit was to the Thien Mu pagoda. This is still a practising Buddhist temple and we were privileged to see and hear the monks at prayer.