On the afternoon of April 24, at the Nguyen Dynasty’s Privy Council (Co Mat Vien - Tam Toa), Hue Monuments Conservation Center held an online signing ceremony for a scientific and cultural cooperation agreement with the Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac Museum (France), opening an additional channel to access international archival resources for heritage conservation.

40 artists, including lecturers and students from the University of Arts, the University of Sciences (Hue University), along with other painters and architects, participated in a creative program titled Sketching French Architectural Heritage and Cultural-Historical Relics in Hue.

“Hue cultural heritage - Integration, creativity, and development” is the title of a thematic exhibition that has recently opened to the public at Pleiku Museum (21 Tran Hung Dao Street, Pleiku Ward, Gia Lai Province) on April 21.

For a long time, tourism in Hue has largely relied on cultural and heritage assets, resulting in short visitor stays, relatively low spending levels, and limited value creation. As tourism trends shift strongly toward resort-based, experiential, and sports-oriented travel, developing marine tourism, especially coastal resort tourism, is not only a new direction but also a necessity for restructuring the visitor market toward higher-spending segments.

As heritage cities around the world search for sustainable development models, the concept of a “living museum city” is emerging as a direction many localities aspire to. With its distinctive cultural heritage and unique identity, Hue has every potential to become a typical example of this model.

With the exhibition themed “Hue's intangible cultural heritage - Inspiring creativity and development”, Hue City Museum of History showcased the cultural beauty and artistic essence of the Ancient Capital to domestic friends.

Now in its fifth year, Hue has been hosting the Four Seasons Festival (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter). Instead of concentrating activities within a few peak days as in the past, the Hue Four Seasons Festival is implemented under a new model, featuring a continuous series of cultural, artistic and tourism events throughout the year to honor heritage, promote tourism and create new experiences for visitors.

Within the cultural complex of Hue, if the system of palaces and royal tombs defines the face of an Imperial capital, the villages along the lagoon and coastline preserve the depth of community life. There, heritage does not lie dormant in the past but lives on in every festival season, every daily custom, and every belief tied to the natural environment. The Cau Ngu Festival of Thai Duong village, held once every three years in January at the Thuan An seaport, is precisely such a heritage - a vibrant cultural practice where community memory, maritime knowledge, and the will to survive have woven together into an enduring whole across hundreds of years.

Viewed from the realities of conserving and promoting cultural heritage, successive generations at the Hue Monuments Conservation Center have continually wrestled with a question: how can heritage be more than merely “preserved”…

Hue is undergoing a powerful transformation as it has become a centrally governed city, not only leveraging its natural advantages and distinctive cultural heritage but also proactively seeking new growth drivers. The development of a green logistics center and the establishment of a Free Trade Zone (FTZ) are viewed as strategic breakthroughs for the Ancient Capital.