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Young people taking part in the ao-dai parade in front of Ngo Mon (Noon Gate). Photo: Phan Thanh
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Aligning with the new criteria, Hue possesses nearly all the characteristics needed to become a typical cultural heritage city of Vietnam. Yet such a designation cannot rest solely on the number of heritage assets the city possesses or the depth of its history. More importantly, Hue must demonstrate its ability to conserve heritage while pursuing development, turning cultural values into an endogenous source of strength and building a modern city without losing its distinctive identity.
Heritage shapes the city’s form and identity
The first criterion requires that heritage have evolved alongside the locality, be closely intertwined with the urban environment, and contribute to the city’s distinctive values
Over more than seven centuries since Thuan Hoa became part of Dai Viet (1306–2026), and particularly during the more than three centuries when Hue served as the seat of power and imperial capital under the Nguyen lords and the Nguyen Dynasty (1626–1945), the city developed into a center of political power, culture, education and religion. The formation of the city was also a process through which successive layers of culture accumulated, evolved and took shape.
The Citadel and Imperial City, palaces, ceremonial altars and temples, royal tombs, pagodas, traditional garden houses, ancient villages and old quarters, together with the network of rivers, hills and surrounding landscapes, do not exist as isolated elements. Together, they form an integrated urban whole with its own structure, order and underlying philosophy.
In Hue, heritage is not confined to officially protected zones. It lives in the rivers, streets, gardens and Hue traditional wooden houses; in the sound of temple bells, folk songs and melodies; and in the city’s cuisine, ao-dai and way of life. Together, these elements give Hue its beauty, character and enduring appeal.
Hue, therefore, cannot be understood apart from its heritage. Nor can its heritage be effectively conserved by focusing on individual monuments while overlooking the broader fabric of the city, its landscape and the communities that inhabit it.
A rich and living heritage ecosystem
To qualify for the pilot scheme, a locality must have at least two tangible, intangible or documentary heritage elements recognized by Vietnam or UNESCO, while also demonstrating that these assets are effectively leveraged for education, tourism, cultural industries and economic growth.
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| Hue possessing an exceptionally rich heritage ecosystem encompassing architecture, landscapes and an extensive network of waterways. Photo: Quoc Anh |
Hue is home to an exceptionally diverse heritage ecosystem encompassing architecture, landscapes, performing arts, documentary heritage, festivals, traditional crafts, cuisine and folk knowledge. The Complex of Hue Monuments lies at its heart, but the city’s heritage value extends far beyond its imperial structures.
It also includes Nha nhac (Court Music), Ca Hue (Hue-Singing), the Nguyen Dynasty Woodblocks and Imperial Archives, and poetry and literature inscribed on Hue royal architecture. Hue is also part of broader shared cultural traditions, including the Practices Related to the Viet Beliefs in the Mother Goddesses of Three Realms and the art of Bai Choi in Central Vietnam. Beyond internationally recognized heritage, hundreds of monuments, festivals, craft villages and forms of intangible cultural heritage continue to be passed down through local communities.
What is particularly valuable is that much of Hue’s heritage remains part of contemporary life. Nha nhac continues to be performed in imperial and festival settings; Hue-Singing still resonates over the Perfume River; ao-dai are worn on formal occasions; traditional cuisine remains part of everyday family life and local dining; and traditional crafts continue to be revived and reinvented.
This continuity between tradition and the present prevents Hue from becoming a ‘frozen museum’. Instead, it remains a living heritage city, where historical memory continues to shape the urban landscape and contemporary ways of life.
Conservation does not mean rejecting development
A heritage city cannot remain beautiful only in memory while offering few opportunities for development. Nor can modernization be used as a justification for damaging the very values that give a city its identity.
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| Visitors at the Emperor Tu Duc Mausoleum. Photo: Phan Thanh |
Over the past several decades, Hue has made significant progress in rescuing, restoring and promoting its heritage. Once devastated by war and natural disasters – with only around 300 of some 1,400 structures remaining after 1975, most of which were badly deteriorated – many important monuments have since been restored, landscapes rehabilitated, and heritage management and international cooperation strengthened. Experience has shown that Hue’s value lies not merely in individual structures, but in the relationship between architecture, landscape, history and community life.
In this new phase, however, conservation can no longer be limited to repairing deteriorating monuments. Hue needs to make a decisive shift toward managing its entire heritage landscape.
This requires strict controls over building density, height, architectural form, technical infrastructure and services within heritage areas. It also means protecting important visual corridors, waterways, green spaces, ancient villages, garden houses and the environments in which communities continue to practice living heritage. These priorities are also central to the criteria for the heritage city pilot model.
New buildings in Hue do not necessarily have to imitate historic architecture, but they must engage in a respectful dialogue with the city’s heritage. Contemporary architecture should exercise restraint in height, scale, materials and color, while respecting the landscape, public spaces and the distinctive rhythm of the city.
Turning cultural assets into drivers of development
Decree No. 282/2026/ND-CP introduces preferential mechanisms relating to land, fees and charges for projects involving heritage conservation, heritage-based economic development and cultural industries, provided that they do not adversely affect original heritage elements, surrounding landscapes or infrastructure capacity. Revenue from admission to monuments, cultural sites and museums is also intended to be reinvested in heritage conservation and promotion.
For years, the economic use of heritage has largely centered on visits to historic sites. Yet heritage can generate economic value through a much wider range of activities, including performing arts, design, fashion, film, handicrafts, cuisine, museums, heritage education, publishing, digital content and creative tourism.
Hue needs to move from selling admission tickets to creating an ecosystem of experiences; from exploiting individual monuments to developing interconnected cultural product chains; and from merely presenting what the past has left behind to creating new value rooted in tradition.
Hue Festival, performance venues, museums, craft villages, cuisine, ao-dai and digital heritage collections should be connected into a competitive cultural-industry ecosystem. Local residents must be more than beneficiaries: they should be active agents in creating, preserving and deriving value from heritage.
From heritage advantage to heritage governance capacity
A heritage city must also demonstrate experience in sustainable conservation, have museums that meet established standards, and conduct comprehensive economic valuations of its World Heritage assets, with the results published internationally. These are concrete tasks that now lie ahead for Hue.
The city needs to establish an integrated heritage database as soon as possible, accelerate digitization, use technology to monitor the condition of heritage assets, assess carrying capacity, and quantify heritage’s contributions to the economy, society and environment. Development plans must fully integrate conservation requirements from the outset, rather than treating heritage as an afterthought.
At the same time, Hue must develop museum institutions worthy of its heritage, cultivate a strong corps of specialists, artisans and professional heritage managers, and improve policies for mobilizing resources from across society while safeguarding the State’s regulatory role and the interests of local communities.
Hue also needs to clearly define the boundaries of its heritage city within urban planning. The heritage city should not be understood as merely the Imperial Citadel or the core monument zone. It should be viewed within a much broader spatial framework encompassing the Perfume River, the royal tomb complex, ancient villages and old quarters, traditional garden houses, lagoon landscapes, surrounding hills and mountains, and spaces where traditional cultural practices continue to thrive.
A development model of national significance
Hue did not become a centrally governed municipality simply to follow the development model of other cities. Its value - together with its responsibility – is to forge a different path: to urbanize without losing its memory; to modernize while preserving its cultural depth; and to pursue economic growth without sacrificing the environment and landscape.
If Hue succeeds in implementing the cultural heritage city model, it will not only generate new momentum for its own development but also offer valuable lessons for Vietnam as a whole. Heritage need not be an obstacle to progress. With appropriate institutions, effective governance and the creative participation of communities, it can become a foundation for sustainable, people-centered development with a strong cultural identity.
Hue has inherited an extraordinary legacy from history. But to truly become a typical heritage city of Vietnam, it must build a new capacity: the ability to keep that heritage alive, to enable it to continue generating value, and to carry it forward into the future.
That is both Hue’s opportunity and its mission in a new era.