Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [209]
During the 1968 Tet Offensive Hué was torn apart again when the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) held the city for 25 days. Communist forces entered Hué in the early hours of January 31, hoisted their flag above the citadel and found themselves in control of the whole city bar two small military compounds. Armed with lists of names, they began searching out government personnel, sympathizers of the Southern regime, intellectuals, priests, Americans and foreign aid workers. Nearly three thousand bodies were later discovered in mass graves around the city – the victims were mostly civilians who had been shot, beaten to death or buried alive. But the killing hadn’t finished: during the ensuing counter-assault as many as five thousand North Vietnamese and Viet Cong, 384 Southern troops and 142 American soldiers died, plus at least another thousand civilians. Hué was all but levelled in the massive fire power unleashed on NVA forces holed up in the citadel but it took a further ten days of agonizing, house-to-house combat to drive the Communists out, in what Stanley Karnow described as “the most bitter battle” of the entire war. Seven years later, on March 26, 1975, the NVA were back to liberate Hué in its pivotal position as the first major town south of the Seventeenth Parallel.
The mammoth task of rebuilding Hué has been going on now for more than twenty years but received a boost in 1993 when UNESCO listed the city as a World Heritage Site, which served to mobilize international funding for a whole range of projects, from renovating palaces to the revival of traditional arts and technical skills.
The central provinces | Hué |
Arrival, information and city transport
Flights arriving at Hué’s Phu Bai Airport, 15km southeast of the city centre, are met by a bus (35,000đ) which takes you to central hotels, and by metered taxis (around $11). The train station lies about 1.5km from the centre of town at the far western end of Le Loi, a boulevard running along the south bank of the Perfume River. Note that trains out of Hué get booked up, especially sleepers to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, so make onward travel arrangements as early as possible (ticket office open daily 7–11.30am & 1.30–8pm).
Hué has two long-distance bus stations: services from the south pull into An Cuu station, 3km southeast of the centre on Highway 1. A xe om or cyclo into town should cost around 15,000đ. Buses from Hanoi and the north dump you at An Hoa station, 4km northwest on Highway 1, from where a xe om or cyclo to the centre costs around 20,000đ. Sinh Café and An Phu Tourist open-tour buses set down at their town-centre offices at no. 7 and no. 11 Nguyen Tri Phuong respectively. Note that some streets in Hué, including Nguyen Tri Phuong and Ben Nghe, have been allocated new numbers. The situation is confusing (since some old numbers remain), but we use the new numbers wherever possible.
The best bet for tourist information is either your hotel or one of the tour agents; staff at the Mandarin Café(see "Eating") are particularly helpful. Every hotel and tour agent hands out photocopied maps, but for a detailed city plan try the big hotels and bookstalls on Le Loi.
Even Hué’s wide avenues become crowded during rush hour (7–9am & 4–6pm), but generally the most enjoyable way of getting around the city’s scattered sights – and especially of touring the Royal Mausoleums – is by bicycle. Most hotels and guesthouses, plus a few cafés, offer bike rental (10,000–15,000đ per day) and motorbikes (60,000–75,000đ). A popular option is to take a guided motorbike tour of Hué and its environs (from $10) offered by a number of tour agents (see "Around Hué"); you either ride pillion or take your own bike. All the above places can usually help with car rental (around $35 per day). Hué has no shortage of cyclos or xe om and also boasts metered taxi services.
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The central provinces