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| Sunshine flowers. Photo: Dang Tuyen |
Because of this harsh weather, anyone who has lived in this land - for a lifetime, half a lifetime, or just a short while - will understand and love Hue. Love for Hue’s sweet, fragrant fruits - which is love for the diligence that exchanges sweat for sweetness. Love for the people of Hue who, despite the harsh weather, still focus on education and live kindly and friendly - this is love for preserved ethics, where ordinary people become wise by living in harmony with nature and being kind to both nature and people. These values are truly precious today!
That’s why there are journeys of return.
Perhaps beginning this journey of returning to Hue out of love was the urgent rescue mission for the Complex of Hue Monuments, which was dilapidated and ruined after the war. According to 1981 statistics, of the 1,400 imperial architectural works, only 400 remained preserved, though some needed restoration. Hue touched the hearts of the entire country and the international community when Mr. Amadou Mahtar M'Bow - then Director-General of UNESCO - issued an urgent appeal: “Hue’s heritage is in danger, standing on the edge of extinction and oblivion.”
After that appeal came ten years of effort from countless hearts, intellects, money, and labor from the entire country and international community coming to Hue. As a result, the Complex of Hue Imperial architectural heritage was urgently rescued, and a part of Hue's former imperial palace reappeared, intact and radiant. Hue was the first locality to bring honor and pride to Vietnam when, on December 11, 1993, UNESCO recognized the Complex of Hue Monuments as an architectural heritage of humanity. Those familiar and unfamiliar hearts that loved and cherished Hue opened a fortunate path for a series of Hue values to be honored by the world thereafter. By 2025, Hue is the only city in Vietnam and Southeast Asia with 8 world heritage sites (6 of which are unique to Hue).
Love has a powerful ripple effect. The ancient Hue has been “rebuilt” day by day since the UNESCO Director-General’s appeal. Some people dedicated their life’s fortune to restoring Hue’s traditional wooden houses. Others rebuilt entire garden houses, infusing them with trees, flowers, and authentic Hue lifestyles, from worship practices and family customs to daily activities, games, reading, and cuisine.
Many people established museums introducing Hue’s history and culture: the Museum of Commissioned Porcelains, the Huong River Museum of Ancient Pottery, museums displaying collections of ceramics, bronzes, Buddha statues, and imperial costumes. Some revived the embroidery craft, while others collected, researched, and restored imperial and folk dance and music compositions. Hue is like a carefully tended garden house, where, over time, Hue’s purely imperial and folk values emerge, with a unique beauty found nowhere else.
The economy has also returned to Hue, bringing hopes to promote Hue’s development, create wealth, and improve people’s lives. These hearts are sometimes manifested through projects or quiet investment mobilization for Hue. For many, the history of Hue’s economic development after the national reunification has unfolded slowly. On this matter, my friends sometimes argue whether slow or fast is better. That persistent question, seemingly endless with no satisfactory answer, has been answered by the world: “Protecting the environment is protecting the economy.” Hue chose to protect the environment even before the world warned about climate change. Hue chose to protect the culture and firmly believed in its existing values. Thanks to this, Hue has preserved the values of a heritage city, an important foundation for Hue to become a centrally-governed city with dedicated regulations for a national cultural heritage city.
Hue is a land of invitations, so there will be journeys of return, standing by Hue to cherish it differently from this new spring onward. Hue may not be an economically rich city, but it has values that modern people greatly need. Hue has everything for journeys back to history, culture, and nature, followed by green and knowledge economies. People return to Hue to visit waterfalls, forests, Vong Canh Hill, travel down the Perfume River, visit Thuan An beach, or Tam Giang-Cau Hai lagoon to hear the echoes of ancient Hue in the afternoon breeze. The history of the former Imperial Capital - the origin of today’s heritage city and new city, is told through such vast dimensions of time and space, so immensely magnanimous that people suddenly feel themselves growing alongside it. Hue doesn’t just belong to Hue; it’s a part of Vietnam’s history and culture.
So many new things are happening in the heart of the city. This new year will see the completion of the Nguyen Hoang Bridge across the Perfume River. The longest sea bridge in Central Vietnam, Thuan An Bridge, is gradually taking shape. The city is surely turning toward the sea in its beautiful new endeavor. This spring, Hue will be a city of flowers, especially golden apricot blossoms. I will take you to visit the homes of farmers growing apricot blossoms in The Chi Tay village, Dien Hoa commune, Phong Dien district, incidentally making a spring tour of villages along Tam Giang Lagoon that now also ablaze with golden apricot color. Or we can cycle slowly around the streets inside the Imperial City, admiring the green moss gradually covering bomb scars on the ancient walls, breathing in rhythm with the grass, trees, and flowers... Everything suddenly becomes fresh. You'll feel healthier and more in love with life and yourself. Through its humility, Hue ‘heals’ the injuries that life, intentionally or unintentionally, has brought to you. Hue is such a magical land.
You can wear an ao dai and take many beautiful photos with Hue in spring. When you stand beside the Imperial City wall, by an ancient house, in front of a family temple, or when you choose Thuan An Bridge for your “background”, spring rice fields, Chan May Port, or the uniquely beautiful curved roof of Phu Bai International Airport terminal..., you will understand and share with Hue in its new journey. Hue has many “savings” but also carries a great responsibility - knowing how to “make money” while protecting the natural “treasures” that ancestors left for present and future generations.
Having met Hue, I believe you will understand and continue to love, cherish, and protect Hue as many people have been doing and will do. Hue still awaits you, as in poet Bui Giang’s verse: “Dạ thưa xứ Huế bây giờ/ Vẫn còn núi Ngự bên bờ sông Hương” (Respectfully speaking, Hue nowadays / Still has Ngu Mountain by the Perfume River shore".