Parking my bike, I realised it was much bigger than I thought. I took the offer of a man with a bike with a carriage in the front to take me round. He was recommended by the lonely planet and said he knew a lot about the history of the place.
The entrance to the citadel
He told me how the thick wall (nearly 2meters wide) around the city had been built by the Chinese. During the war, it had been partially distroyed by American bombs. A lot of it had been reconstructed. He showed me a temple with a sign I'd seen in lots of other temples, which he explained means 'long life.'
The long life sign
When the hour was up, he took me back to the entrance to the 'forbidden city' and said I would have to pay to get in there. Once inside, there was a museum section explaining about the citadel- also know as the imperial city.
The citadel
200 years ago, when China had invaded Vietnam, the Emperor had build the citadel- which was his palace. During the Vietnam war, (the Vietnamese refer to it as 'the American war,') many bombs were dropped on Hue which caused most of it to be destroyed. The area just through the entrance, would have been full of people at the time.
Just through the entrance
As it stretched for over 2km, I had to walk a long way to get back to the exit. There were reconstructing the imperial city so there was areas where you could see how it would have been at the time- with all the intricate patterns.
One of the exit gates
I got back to the hostel pretty tired from all the walking (though still made it out with some people I'd met!)
Lovely photo's Daisy.
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