My cycling tour started in the city of Hue and on the day before the tour I spent a very enjoyable afternoon exploring Hue Citadel. Built between 1805 and 1832, the Citadel formed the capital of the Nguyen Dynasty until 1945. Within the vast citadel walls (10km circumference) lies the magnificent Imperial City (perimeter 2.5km) with its own separate moat and walls - a royal fortress and palace.

Whilst many of the buildings were damaged in the Indochina Wars restoration has been done to many buildings and you can really get a sense of the scale of the place and the obvious wealth of the royal families. The Imperial City was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993 (one of 7 in Vietnam).

Hue was fought over during the Vietnam / American war during the Tet offensive, lost by the South / Americans before being won back after a 1 month battle / siege.

The layout and style of the buildings is very evocative of similar buildings we have seen in Japan and of course Cambodia, but are more modern than many from there.

The photos don’t really do justice to the scale of the place. To give one indication, on the day I visited, my Apple Watch says that I walked 16,200 steps the vast majority of which would have been around the Citadel. I saw many of the main buildings, but certainly did not get around everything and did very little outside the Imperial City areas.

The Imperial City of Hue