The Hue ancient citadel relic complex – a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site – will be open with free admission for domestic visitors during the first three days of the 2019 Lunar New Year (February 5-7).
Holidaymakers to the Hue ancient capital city on those days will have a chance to participate in royal games and enjoy calligraphy and martial arts performances, along with traditional dragon and lion dances.
As part of activities welcoming the arrival of Tet, the biggest and most important festival year-round in Viet Nam, the Hue Monuments Conservation Centre will re-enact the Neu tree planting ceremony, a traditional ritual practised under the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945) on January 28 (the 23rd day of the last lunar month).
There will also be an array of activities such as wrapping chung cake (a traditional Tet novelty cake made from glutinous rice).
In 2018, the Hue Monuments Conservation Centre earned 381.7 billion VND (16.4 million USD) from serving over 3.5 million tourists, up 19 percent compared to the target set.
The centre has implemented 24 restoration projects with total investment exceeding 278.8 billion VND (11.9 million USD).
Hue, the formal imperial capital of Viet Nam for hundreds of years, is home to five heritages recognised by UNESCO, including the ancient citadel relic complex (a World Cultural Heritage site), Hue royal court music (an intangible cultural heritage item), Nguyen Dynasty’s wood blocks (a documentary heritage item), Nguyen Dynasty’s royal administrative documents (part of the Asia-Pacific Register of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme), and literature on Hue royal architecture (another documentary heritage).
The Hue imperial citadel relic site has been ranked second among the top seven tourist attractions of Viet Nam in 2017.