Hue (February 2020)

When we landed in Hue, we took a taxi to our hotel (Indochine Palace), ate lunch and then went to the Khai Dinh tomb. Khai Dinh was the second to last king in the Nguyen Dynasty. His tomb is three stories tall, and he was buried 9 meters under his statue in the center of his crypt. Interestingly, his burial site is the only one of the Nguyen Dynasty that we know the exact location of the body. Many of the others were completely secret, or we only know the general area where they were buried.

Khai Dinh’s tomb is the highest elevated of all the Nguyen emperor tombs. It was built on the side of a hill and has 137 steps from the foot of the hill to the top. Construction of the tomb began in 1920 and took eleven years to complete. It was still unfinished when the Emperor Khai Dinh died of tuberculosis in 1925. His son, the last Emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai, finally completed the tomb in 1931.

Once we reached the second level, we found the stele pavilion. The stele pavilion houses a stone slab on which Bao Dai recorded the achievements of his father.

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Khai Dinh’s tomb is guarded by twelve guardians and the dragon banisters.

Khai Dinh’s tomb is the most modern tomb out of all the Nguyen Dynasty tombs. While most of the tombs are constructed using wood and stone, Khai Dinh’s tomb was constructed using cast iron and reinforced concrete. Khai Dinh was heavily influenced by French and western design due to him spending more time in France than his own kingdom, a fact which disappointed many of his subjects.

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Interestingly, traditional Chinese writing is everywhere in ancient places in Vietnam. This is due to a thousand years of Chinese reign in the region (111 BC-938 AD). The Latin Alphabet was first introduced by Portuguese Missionaries in the 17th century. During the French Colonization, the French modified it and forced it upon the citizens in 1910. Even still, all of the official records, and writings on monuments, continued to be in Chinese until Ho Chi Minh took over.

For those that are interested, my great uncle translated the couplet (because my mom was incapable of doing so 😆).

四面獻奇觀 風景別開宇宙 – Spectacular views on four sides, this scenery brings a new look to the universe,
億年鍾旺氣 江山長護儲胥 – Prosperity prevails for one hundred million years, the country forever blesses her sovereign.

When you enter Khai Dinh’s crypt, you are instantly bedazzled by the magnificence of Khai Dinh’s altar, which is the room directly outside of the tomb room.

Once inside the tomb, you will be amazed by the sheer amount of gold and jewels that decorate the tomb. This lavish room showcases the emperor’s personality (he was considered to be very fancy). One of the most famous attractions is the mural painted on the ceiling, which portrays nine dragons.

The painter who painted the ceiling was very famous. The story goes that the painter used his feet to hold the brush and the king got mad at him and threatened to behead him. The painter pointed out that it was a huge mural and if he used his hands he couldn’t see what he was doing, so therefore he had to use his feet. The king replied by saying the only reason he hadn’t already cut off the painter’s head, is because he was the best painter in Vietnam. Well, that’s the end of the story folks. Amazingly, the mural is still in perfect condition after 90 years, and there (supposedly) has not been an insect seen on the ceiling the entire time. Some people attribute this to a special paint mixture that the painter used.

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After we finished looking around the tomb, we went to another tomb called the Minh Mang tomb. Minh Mang was the second Nguyen emperor. The biggest difference between Minh Mang’s tomb and Khai Dinh’s tomb is the size. Minh Mang’s tomb is vast and spacious, covering over 40 acres. The first thing you see once you walk in is the stele pavilion. Then, after passing a series of courtyards, you’ll find Hien Duc Gate guarding access to Sung An Temple, where the memory of the Emperor and his Empress Ta Thien Nhan are worshipped.

From Sung An, another gate leads to three side-by-side bridges that cross the Lake of Impeccable Clarity, after which you reach the Bright Pavilion (Minh Lau), a square ​two-story pavilion with eight roofs.

You can see from the 360 picture linked below that we had the entire grounds virtually to ourselves.

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The Pavilion sits atop three terraces that represent three powers in the world: Earth, water, and heaven. Two flower gardens behind Minh Lau create an arrangement of flowers in the shape of the Chinese character signifying longevity. After the garden, another stone bridge crosses the crescent-shaped Lake of the New Moon (Tan Nguyet).

On the other side of the lake, a path leads to a huge staircase with sinister dragon banisters. The staircase leads to a circular wall enclosing the area. A locked bronze door bars access to the emperor’s burial site, which is a massive hill planted with pines and brush.

After we walked around the entire grounds, we went to dinner at a restaurant named Madam Thu, which is famous for little Hue snacks.

The next morning, we went to the Citadel, the capital of Vietnam throughout the 19th and early 20th century. It was kind of like a Vietnamese version of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The royal family, along with their servants, lived there, and the Mandarins, which were government ministers, came to work there. Most of the Citadel was destroyed during the Vietnam war, although many buildings still remain. Luckily, during the French occupation, the French took many photos of the Citadel and so some buildings have been restored to what they used to look like, and many other buildings will continue to be restored based off of these historical photos.

Once inside the Citadel, you could see the courtyard where the ministers lined up while they waited for the emperor to arrive.

360 link of the Citadel courtyard

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The French conquered Vietnam late in the 19th century but decided to leave the Emperors in place as puppet rulers beholden to Paris. Reigning with the permission of the French, the Nguyens ruled as puppet monarchs at the Hue Citadel until 1945, when Bao Dai turned over the reins of government to the revolutionary government of Ho Chi Minh. At the Citadel, there is a hall where the Emperors altars are. There were some very young emperors that were forced to rule, one was 7, one was 10 and one was 12. The French’s thinking was that they could control the emperors more easily while the emperors were young. In the Nguyen Dynasty, the 11th emperor was 7, the 10th was 10 and the 8th was 12 (refer to picture below). Something I asked our guide was why the French didn’t marry a french lady to the emperor in order to have more influence. The guide told me that the Vietnamese would have been furious if that happened and would rebel against the French.

You must take your shoes off and once you are inside, you can’t take any pictures. Right across from the hall is the pagoda. There are three stories, which means (top to bottom) heaven and emperor, Buddha, Earth.

After we finished exploring the Citadel, our tour guide called a dragon boat for us, and we went to Thien Mu Pagoda. We thought we were going to ride a big dragon boat.

Instead of that, we got a very small dragon boat. For us to get on board, they had to ram the shore, and we had to climb down a hill to get there. Bebe became virtually a human projectile as she rocketed past me and almost fell in the Perfume River.😆

When we finally arrived at the pagoda, we climbed up the stairs to take a good look. It is seven stories tall, and each story represented a different Buddha.

Beyond the pagoda, there is a courtyard with beautiful trees and a mini version of the pagoda.

When we were walking around, we saw a giant spider!

After we circled the grounds, we took the boat to a dock that is close to our hotel and split up. All the girls went to a store called Elise (so my sister could take pictures with her Elise merchandise), and the boys went to a coffee shop.

Once Dad and I finished our drinks, we went back to the hotel and played pool.

After I beat Dad 10 games in a row (okay… maybe not 10 times. FINE! I lost every time, you happy now?😠), we went to dinner at Ancient Hue Garden Houses. The place is made up of five Imperial garden houses in a traditionally mandarin residential area adjacent to the Citadel.

After dinner, we went to bed. The next morning, we went to the train station and hopped on a train to Danang.

The train went through the Hai Van Pass, which is a scenic mountain pass.