Chua Ong Chinese Assembly Hall built in the mid 1800s. Interestingly there are no Budhhas on the altar. Instead there small statues of three doctors who saved the local population from a Cholera Epidemic in 1918. 

Getting around Hué on foot can be a bit tiring so we hired a couple of cyclos to get us around one day.

The 1960s architecture of the Redemtonist Church in the European part of the city stands in contrast to the other buildings around Hué.

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Views of the Ngo Mon gate of the Imperial City. This is the main gate which is in the south of the city. The first picture shows the moat around the Imperial City wall.

Beautiful internal gates to the main buildings. These are the gates to the Hung Mieu, the temple dedicated to the parents of the Nguyen Emperor Gia Long.

Rich Interior of the Hung Mieu Temple.  The Pavillion of Everlasting Clarity. Standing in front of the Pavilion are nine dynastic bronze urns which are said to represent the best of Vietnamese nineteenth century craftsmanship. 

The Mieu is a temple to the ancestors of the Nguyen Emperors. There is an altar to each Emperor with an image, painting or photo of each Emperor. The inerior is richly decorated in black and red with patterns in gold. 

Magnificent West Gate of the Imperial City. Shrine in the Queen Mother's residence, the Dien Tho.

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Where we were:

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Margaret and Allan at the Mausoleum of Emperor Khai Dinh. Monks at the Thein Mu Pagoda. It was from here that the Venerable Thich Quang Duc went to Saigon in 1963 to set himself alight with petrol to protest against the supression of Buddhism by President Diem. The famous image of the monk engulfed in flames alerted the world to the oppresive regime in South Vietnam.

Statue of Emperor Khai Dinh in his opulent baroque mausoleum on the perfume river. Stone Mandarins still attend Emperor Khai Dinh who reigned in Vietnam from 1920 to 1931.

Minh Lau Pavillion at the Minh Mang Mausoleum. A mythical creature in the Song An Temple at the Minh Mang Mausoleum which was built in 1843. 

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