Hue city tour by private car and back by dragon boat + tour guide

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: Hue Imperial City (The Citadel), Hue, Thua Thien - Hue Province

The grounds of the Imperial City are protected by fortified ramparts 2 kilometers by 2 kilometers, and ringed by a moat. The water in the moat is routed from the Perfume River through a series of sluice gates. This enclosure is the citadel (Kinh thành).
Inside the citadel is the Imperial City (Hoàng thành), with a perimeter wall some 2.5 kilometers in length.
Within the Imperial City is the Purple Forbidden City (Tử cấm thành), a term identical to the Forbidden City in Beijing. Access to the innermost enclosure was restricted to the imperial family

Duration: 2 hours

Stop At: Thien Mu Pagoda, Hue, Thua Thien - Hue Province

The oldest pagoda in Hue is Thien Mu Pagoda whose establishment is associated with the early actions of the first Nguyen Lord in Dang Trong (South Vietnam). This legend relates how, when Nguyen Hoang was sent to Thuan Hoa (now Central Vietnam) to rule this area, he himself made a survey of the terrain to choose a site for settling down. As he rode his horse upstream along the Huong River side he saw a small hillock beside the river, whose terrain looked like a dragon turning its head back. This hill was called Ha Khe. The local people told a story that every night an old lady in a red blouse and green trousers appeared here saying that a true Lord would come to this place and build a pagoda for the prosperity of the country. Thus this place became known as Thien Mu Son (Heavenly Lady Mountain).
Thien Mu Pagoda was ranked one of the twenty most beautiful landscapes in Hue with the poem Thien Mu chung thanh, composed by the emperor Thieu Tri, inscribed on the stone stele set near the Pagoda gate. In 1862, during the reign of Tu Duc, who prayed for a child, the Emperor was afraid that the word Thien profaned Heaven because it means heavenly. So Tu Duc renamed the Pagoda as Linh Mu which means Holy Lady. It was not until 1869 that the Emperor allowed the reuse of the old name Thien Mu meaning Heavenly Lady. The Pagoda is still known by both names today.


Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Tomb of Minh Mang, Hue, Thua Thien - Hue Province

Touted as the most majestic of all Nguyen Dynasty royal tombs, Minh Mang Tomb is a complex of 40 constructions: palaces, temples, pavilions, etc. Many said that it’s a perfect combination of manmade and natural beauty of Hue, where architecture fits harmoniously into the surrounding landscape.
It’s designed as a symmetric axis (called Than Dao) running from the Great Red Gate to the foot of the Surrounding Wall behind the King’s tomb. Apart from this gate at the center, there are 2 other gates: the Left Rad Gate and the Right Red Gate, which led to the Honour Courtyard – where two rows of mandarins, elephants and horse’s stone statues are standing. At the other side of the 3 gates, on Mount Phung Than is the square Stele Pavilion, where the stele “Thanh Duc Than Cong” inscribed with the King’s biography and merits written by his son, is placed. Sung An Temple, where King Minh Mang and his wife are worshipped, can be accessed through Hien Duc Gate. There are 3 stones bridges on the other side of this temple, with the marble one reserved only for the king. Finally, the Hoang Trach Gate heads to the Minh Lau Pavilion. It is placed on top of three terraces representing heaven, earth and water. Closer to the tomb area, the New Moon Lake (Ho Tan Nguyet) is crescent-shaped and embraces the circular wall surrounding the grave (Buu Thanh)


Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Tomb of Khai Dinh, Thua Thien - Hue Province

Under Khai Dinh, Western culture vigorously infiltrated into Vietnam. Khai Dinh himself made a tour to France in 1922. As a result, in his tomb, several elements of the western architecture have been intermingled with the nation’s traditional art, particularly the use of concrete in place of wood, ardoise slates for roofing, iron gates, lightning rods, electric lamps, etc.
Mountains, hills and rivulets round the tomb are exploited to fulfill the geomantic requirements thus offer the tomb a majestic environment.
Unique value of art of the tomb lies with the decoration skill obviously seen in the Thien Dinh Palace. Its interior decoration features colourful mosaics made of millions of ceramic chip.
With diligence and expert hands, artisans of Khai Dinh times have created hundreds of mosaic bas – relief, all elaborate and attractive with graphic designs and arabesques despite the hardness of the materials.


Duration: 1 hour