In this episode we have another installment of our Vietnam adventure. We will be spending a few days in Hue, Vietnam. We are having a great time in a different SE Asian country than Thailand and we are really starting to appreciate Vietnam and its people. In this episode we take a train from Da Nang to Hue to see if it is viable for life as a RIPper to retire there.Check out our exclusive RetireCheap.Asia membership site – all the REAL life details you need to live in Thailand plus connect with other like-minded people at: http://goo.gl/M0nMT5
In part 13 we will continue to cover what it is like to live in Vietnam and in this episode we will check out the once capital of Vietnam, Hue and continue to contemplate the question, “what would life be like living in Vietnam as a retiree?” We will look to see what the upsides and downsides are to living in a Communist country like Vietnam.
Here is a little background info about Hue. Huế is a city in central Vietnam that was the seat of Nguyen Dynasty emperors and the national capital from 1802-1945. A major attraction is its vast, 19th-century Citadel, surrounded by a moat and thick stone walls. It encompasses the Imperial City, with palaces and shrines; the Forbidden Purple City, once the emperor’s home; and a replica of the Royal Theater.
Huế originally rose to prominence as the capital of the Nguyễn lords, a feudal dynasty that dominated much of southern Vietnam from the 17th to the 19th century. In 1802, Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (later Emperor Gia Long) succeeded in establishing his control over the whole of Vietnam, thereby making Huế the national capital.
Huế was the national capital until 1945, when Emperor Bảo Đại abdicated and a communist DRV government was established with its capital at Hanoi, in the north.
While Bảo Đại was briefly proclaimed “Head of State” with the help of the returning French colonialists in 1949 (although not with recognition from the communists or the full acceptance of the Vietnamese people), his new capital was Saigon, in the south.
During the Republic of Vietnam, Huế’s central location very near the border between the North and South put it in a vulnerable position in the Vietnam War. In the Tết Offensive of 1968, during the Battle of Huế, the city suffered considerable damage not only to its physical features, but its reputation as well, due to a combination of the American military bombing of historic buildings held by the North Vietnamese, and the massacre at Huế committed by the communist forces.
After the war’s conclusion, many of the historic features of Huế were neglected because they were seen by the victorious communist regime and some other Vietnamese as “relics from the feudal regime”; the Vietnamese Communist Party doctrine officially described the Nguyễn Dynasty as “feudal” and “reactionary.” There has since been a change of policy, however, and many historical areas of the city are currently being restored.
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Aces High / Ishikari Lore – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons “Attribution 3.0” http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Martial Arts on a Mountain – Teknoaxe – Used with permission CC (Creative Commons) 4.0 license – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ALCFK2pawg