After Rong house... Here come other traditional traces of Vietnamese house - the empire era in Hue, where there is also an art of traditional tea serving

But the real "supposed to be a tourist-visiting place" is where the King used to stay.

Well, we need to mention the city of Hue - where is famous with so many attractions and traces of the empire history... There you can also find the special way of drinking tea (not wine, but tea.)

Hue is also an important center of Buddhism. The city and its surrounding area still contain dozens of pagodas constructed more than 300 years ago.

Hue still retains its original layout from the Middle Ages and therefore the whole city is in effect a vast and invaluable museum. The historical sites of Hue have been classified by the Vietnamese government as very precious property and in December 1993 Hue was recognized as a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO.

World Heritage Site : The archaeological sites of Hue are the remains of the capital of Nguyen, the last Vietnamese dynasty that was prosperous from the early 19th to the mid 20th century. Although based on an architectural style from China, these structures incorporate both Baroque and traditional Vietnamese architecture. Now recognized for their historical and artistic value, they were included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1993.

The citadel with the emperor city is the most well-known object of interest Hues. 

Hue was dramatically affected during both wars with the French in the 1940s and later with the Americans in the 1960s and '70s: Most of the structures in the centuries-old citadel were severely damaged. Some of those royal buildings have been repaired and rebuilt, including the Forbidden Purple City, the emperor's private residence.
The city is bisected by the Song Huong, or Perfume River (named after a scented shrub that grows there), and along its banks south of Hue lie the many and impressive tombs of the emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945). Today are the relics of this emperor residence in the citadel and the surrounding emperor tombs one of the touristiest attractions of Vietnam.

A very unusual place here is the burial place of the emperor Khai Dinh (1916-1925). The grandiose reinforced concrete construction shows a synthesis from Vietnamese and European elements, even the faces of the stone-sculptures shows a mixture from Asiatic and European style.

The most majestic emperor tomb is the tomb of Minh Mang (1820-1840). The famous Buildings are surrounded by a beautiful garden and we were more than fascinated of it.

Tea in Hue

Tea is no less important in Hue. For the Vietnamese in Hue, drinking  tea is an art form; an intellectual, aesthetic and sentimental activity. In ancient times, a man was judged by three things: his view of life, his capacity to appreciate beauty - and the way he drank his tea.

No one in Viet Nam is unfamiliar with tea, but only in Hue did tea-drinking become elevated to a level that matches that of China and Japan. For in the 19"' century. Hue became the new capital of a new line'of kings, and the home of a nobility whose forms of entertainment and pursuits of pleasure were different from those of the noble classes of the previous dynasty in Bac Ha (Northern Viet Nam). During the Nguyen Dynasty, the noble class sought to create a cultural, political and social style different from that of their dynastic predecessors, especially the Le and the Trinh. The new nobility modeled itseif on the Chinese court, though the customs and beliefs were altered somewhat to suit the geography and the character of the people of Hue. Thus there are many similarities as well as significant differences between Hue's tea culture and that of China.

Tea parties are often held in beautiful and elegant tea rooms. The most solemn room or space in a house is generally chosen to be the tea room, its walls hung with ink paintings, poems written in Chinese characters, scrolls, ancient statuettes and so on. Flower pots are hung by the window to give the room a more idyllic atmosphere.

Sometimes tea parties are held in gardens in the shade of large trees, the revelers seated on porcelain stools around large stone tables. The latter setting is considered to be especially conducive for poetic inspiration, and at garden tea parties one often finds the guests strolling together among the trees and flowers, reciting verses from famous poems or creating their own. A harmonious setting is crucial to the creation of a harmonious overall atmosphere for a tea party.

According to the customs of Vietnamese people, on moonlit nights, devotees set their boats on the lake and ponds when the lotus flowers are in bloom. They open the about-to-bloom lotus flowers and place a lot of tea inside each blossom, then close them with ribbon or string. Then they get the moonlit dew from the lotus leaves . By dawn, the living scent of lotus impregnates the tea , and the gatherers have enough dew to add to their teapots. After a few hours of sleep, they enjoy a blissful afternoon of tea.

Can we have this beautiful flowers pond next to the tea field :)