The Citadel in Hue

Most of the huge Citadel in Hue was destroyed during the American War. The Citadel was built in the 1800s by the Vietnamese Nguyen dynasty of kings to house the royal family and conduct the official business between mandarins and the King. Each person could enter the Citadel by only one way according to that person's profession. The king and the royal family would always enter through the middle entrance of the gate. Civilian officials like mandarins would enter through the right entrance of the gate. The military and soldiers would enter through the gate's left entrance. The Citadel also housed a temple where the people can worship the ten kings who are held in favor by the people enough to have honorary shrines maintained for them. Of the three kings that don't have shrings, two kings were harmful governors and the last king was a puppet king installed by the French before their occupation collapsed in the 1950s.

We also got the chance to visit a traditional Hue house built in the 1890s. A remarkable characteristic of most of the buildings in this city is that the insides of the buildings stay cool even though it is blazing hot outside. There were several fruit trees in the garden of this house, where we picked mulberries from a tree, but most of the ripe, sweet ones had already been picked by previous visitors.