Huế

Huế, formerly Thừa Thiên Huế province, is a municipality in central Vietnam, located approximately at the center of the country, and an educational, medical, and cultural hub. It borders Quảng Trị to the north, Đà Nẵng to the south, Salavan and Sekong of Laos to the west and the South China Sea to the east. As one of the country's six direct-controlled municipalities, it falls under the administration of the central government.

Huế has 128 km of coastline, 22,000 ha of lagoons and over 200,000 ha of forest. The city is located in the middle of the North Central and South Central regions (including the South Central Coast and Central Highlands), and is transitional in many aspects: geology, climate, administrative division, and local culture.

What is now the modern city was historically part of Thuận Hóa, a territory ceded by Champa to Đại Việt in 1306 as a wedding dowry. Huế (then known as Phú Xuân) became the provincial capital in 1687, the capital of Đàng Trong from 1738 to 1775, and the capital of Vietnam during the Nguyễn dynasty from 1802 to 1945. The city served as the Imperial Citadel and administrative capital of the Nguyễn dynasty, and later functioned as the administrative capital of the protectorate of Annam during the French Indochina period.

Huế is a popular tourist destination with its extensive UNESCO-designated complex of imperial palaces, tombs and temples. Alongside its moat and thick stone walls, the complex encompasses the Imperial City of Huế, with palaces and shrines; the Forbidden Purple City, once the emperor's home; a replica of the Royal Theater; as well as temples and monuments in the city's outskirts.