Hue city is the land of civilization, rich culture and history. Thanks to its strategic geographical position, it was a key locality of Dai Viet (Vietnam's former name from 1054 to 1400 and 1428 to 1804). Hue city also plays an important role in connecting the north and south. These advantages enable Hue city to be a typical proud cultural center in Vietnam.
In nearly 400 years (1558-1945), Hue was the metropolis of nine Nguyen Lords, capital of Tay Son dynasty and 13 kings under Nguyen Dynasty. Today, Hue city is still home to tangible and intangible cultural heritages featuring Vietnamese typical intellectual and spiritual values.
On the basis of material and spiritual foundation formed in early XIV century (when Champa king offered Chau O and Chau Ri territories as wedding present to get married to Huyen Tran princess), Nguyen Lords (XVI-XVIII century), Tay Son dynasty (late XVIII century) and 13 kings of Nguyen dynasty (1802-1945) continued to promote and develop Hue as a invaluable cultural prosperity.
It is Hue city's pride to be the homeland of typical Vietnamese culture including 1.000 tangible cultural heritage relics, historic sites, revolutionary relics, President Ho Chi Minh relics and religious constructions. Of all, Hue Monuments Complex is the most typical and noble monument recognized as world cultural heritage by UNESCO.
Beside tangible heritages, Hue city is home to diverse intangible cultural heritages including various kinds of royal scholar performance art, decoration art, fine art, gastronomy, customs and practice. Vietnamese court music - Nguyen dynasty royal court music recognized as intangible and oral masterpiece of humanity by UNESCO has been maintained and promoted. Types of traditional music (i.e. royal court music, Hue opera, Hue singing, Hue theater and folk songs, etc.) as well as ethnic minorities' music have been unceasingly collected, recovered, promoted and exploited in tourism development in recent years. Many traditional handicraft products have successfully been preserved and recovered such as My Xuyen wood carving, Phuoc Tich pottery, Thanh Tien paper flower, Sinh village folk painting, citadel embroidery painting, Bao La bamboo weaving, Phuong Duc bronze casting and A Luoi zeng textile (a kind of traditional brocade made by ethnic minority people living in A Luoi district) In addition, Hue city maintained gastronomy values with nearly 1.700 royal and folk unique dishes.
With over 500 festivals including royal festivals, traditional festivals and religious festivals, Hue city is honored as Festival city in Vietnam. These events have long existed and connected with regional cultural values. Over historic periods, they have been nurtured and reinforced. Today, traditional festivals continued to be "warmed up", recovered, exploited and promoted. At present, there are over 100 folk festivals, traditional and modern festivals recovered and promoted by localities including Hue royal festival (Nam Giao esplanade sacrifice ceremony, Xa Tac esplanade sacrifice ceremony and Van Mieu Sacrifice ceremony, etc.); religious festivals (Buddhist festival, Hue Nam Palace festival and Quan The Am (Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva) festival, etc); festivals commemorating founders, deity that is enshrined in each village and craft ancestors (Whale Worshipping Ceremony, Sinh village's Wrestling Festival, Thu Le Village's Wrestling ceremony, Chuon village festival, boat-racing ceremony, kite-flying ceremony, etc.) and others such as Huyen Tran Temple festival, Sport Cultural Day of Ethnic Minority, etc. Especially, Hue festival and Hue traditional handicraft festivals are two impressive events biennially held in even and odd years respectively. Throughout festival seasons, many cultural activities and impressive festivals have been held.
On the basis of local tangible and intangible cultural heritages, the authority and residents of Hue city have unceasingly made effort to well conserve and develop Hue city as a country-wide major cultural center.