East Bastion (viewed from Doan Thi Diem St.) will be a new place for stopovers for tourists. Photo: Dong Van

Hue cuisine at Truong Sanh Palace

Truong Sanh Palace is cách đánh chẵn lẻ luôn thắngsituated in the northeast of the Imperial City, just behind Dien Tho Palace. Built in 1822 in Emperor Minh Mang’s Era, initially called Truong Ninh, the palace served as a royal garden.

In 1886, in Emperor Dong Khanh’s Era, Truong Ninh was turned into the palace for Grand Empress Dowagers and Empress Dowagers of the Nguyen Dynasty. In 1923, in Emperor Khai Dinh’s Era, Truong Ninh continued to be repaired and renamed Truong Sanh Palace.

The palace was in ruin and fell into oblivion during the wars. In 2005-2007, Hue Monuments Conservation Center had it repaired to return its original beauty. Besides the palace itself, there are pretty lanes, Dao Nguyen Creek and poetic Tan Nguyen Lake, system of rockeries, gardens, walls, triple gates, etc. They are included in the tour to attract tourists.

Since 2015, Truong Sanh Palace has been organized into a cultural space for exhibitions about the royal life of Hue and relevant services such as photo service, royal tea and royal wine, etc. However, after many years, the center has realized that those services are not very financially efficient and Hue Monuments Conservation Center decides to improve the situation with the project of providing Hue cuisine service at Truong Sanh Palace.

The Imperial City needs compatible services. Photo: Bao Minh

The aim of the project is to contribute to conserving and promoting the quintessence of Hue cuisine, forming cuisine tours in the Imperial City, combined with royal art shows. Services will be developed on the basis of promoting high-quality traditional cultural values and enhancing cultural acquisition.

Mr. Hoang Van Trieu, Director of Hue Monuments Service Development Center (now belongs to Hue Monuments Conservation Center) says Hue cuisine service at Truong Sanh Palace aims at middle and high-end tourists. Every activity will be supervised to ensure requirements of landscape and environment protection. At the moment, an investor has been chosen and they are now getting ready for operation in the coming time. 

Compatible services

Besides Truong Sanh Palace, other destinations such as East Bastion (Imperial City) and the estate at 57 Dang Dung St. have been put into operation. 57 Dang Dung St. is for services about traditional medicine because it is related to Thai Y Vien of the Nguyen Dynasty in the old days.

Presently each day on average Hue Imperial City receives 5,000 groups of visitors. In order to attract more and more tourists, Hue Monuments Conservation Center is trying to improve its appearance, making it more and more beautiful and attractive.

Since 2012, Hue Monuments Conservation Center has developed many services, following the stages of the project of developing services on the basis of promoting the value of Hue ancient capital until 2020 agreed upon by the Provincial People’s Committee.

Accordingly, services for tourist will be offered at the 11 relic sites in order to take advantage of the ancient capital in accordance with the law and the international convention on monument conservation. 

Different from other areas purely for entertainment, Hue heritage is a complex of historical, cultural and architectural relics and a special space. In this space, it is necessary that services and activities be decent so that tourists can feel the depth of intangible cultural values. 

According to Mr. Hoang Van Trieu, almost all services and activities at relic sites are organized in accordance with the policy of the Provincial People’s Committee and are attracting many social forces. In order for the services to conform with the assented plan, we encourage potential clients who aim at providing higher-quality services to be compatible with the heritage space and high-end tourists. 

By Dong Van