Preserving Hue, the country's first heritage city

Hue City   shaped with a specific character on the basis of preserving cultural values and heritage.

Fireworks display at Hue Festival 2024. Photo: Le Hoang.

Hue will officially become the 6th centrally-governed city of Vietnam from January 1, 2025. According to experts, Hue City is shaped with a unique status on the basis of preserving cultural and heritage values. And preserving the heritage city of Hue is preserving the cultural heritage values of Vietnam.

Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong - Chairman of Thua Thien Hue Provincial People's Committee. Photo: Ngoc Hieu.

Helping Hue preserve and further promote its heritage values “At this important moment, I am extremely excited, happy and proud that the goal of making Thua Thien Hue a centrally-governed city has come true. This is a milestone, an important historical mark, not only for the development of the province but also for the preservation and promotion of the unique heritage, culture and history of Hue,” Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong, Chairman of the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue province, emotionally shared his feelings when Hue City became a centrally-governed city.

Tourists visiting Hue. Photo: Phuc Dat

The head of the Thua Thien Hue government said that the project to establish Hue City directly under the Central Government has been studied and built on the basis of valuable comments from the people, intellectuals, provincial leaders through the periods, experts, central departments, ministries and branches. There are sufficient legal, political and practical bases and conditions, standards and criteria to build the Project with an urban model to arrange and establish administrative units at all levels in a reasonable manner and has achieved high consensus. The moment the National Assembly officially passed the Resolution to establish Hue City directly under the Central Government is an achievement of important political, economic and social significance, both realizing the Party's policy and demonstrating the will, aspirations and high consensus of the Party Committee, government and people of Thua Thien Hue.

Hue city from above. Photo: Le Hoang

“The establishment of Hue City under the Central Government ensures the correct orientation, direction, viewpoints and ideology of the Politburo, will create new influence and momentum not only for Hue to develop but also create conditions for Hue to better exploit its potentials and strengths in terms of location, heritage, culture and make practical contributions to the region and the country, creating new opportunities to continue implementing strategic tasks of the locality, region and country in the next period. At the same time, it will help Hue City preserve and further promote the value of the ancient capital's heritage and Hue's cultural identity, with its cultural, heritage, ecological, landscape, environmentally friendly and smart characteristics,” Mr. Phuong affirmed. Meanwhile, according to experts, becoming a city under the Central Government is an opportunity for Hue to become one of the major and unique centers of the Southeast Asian region in terms of culture, tourism and specialized healthcare, as set out in the Resolution of the Politburo. In the future, it will create many new opportunities, attract investment and develop the economy, while improving the quality of life of the people. This is also the result of the perseverance, efforts and determination of many generations of leaders of Thua Thien Hue province and the people of the whole province over the past years. Ensuring harmony between conservation and economic development trends For a long time, Hue has been famous as a city with 8 tangible and intangible cultural heritages of the world, along with nearly 1,000 historical relics; is a typical Festival city of Vietnam, "ASEAN Cultural City", "ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable City", "National Green City" ... affirming the brand: "One destination - 8 heritages." Therefore, this challenge has always been concerned and focused on to solve thoroughly and sustainably.

Street festival program serving tourists within the framework of Hue Festival 2024. Photo: Le Hoang

Therefore, once becoming a centrally-governed city, there are many issues that need to be resolved. Among them, the biggest challenge that this locality is concerned about is ensuring harmony between the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage values with economic development trends in the context of urban development. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong, Hue is oriented to develop based on the unique features of history, culture, and architectural landscape of the centrally-governed city model. Along with that, developing in a harmonious and sustainable direction, reducing the pressure of population concentration in urban areas, limiting intervention and impact on traditional relics and architectural landscapes. The development process of Hue always has to consider between heritage preservation and urban development. Mr. Phuong cited a specific story, that is, in meetings with experts, researchers and relevant agencies, there were many different opinions on how to develop without damaging the cultural values of the city.

A corner of Thien Mu Pagoda. Photo: Nguyen Phong

“Therefore, Hue will always promote investment calling for economic development, but always adhere to the development goal associated with preserving the environmental landscape and preserving heritage and cultural values, although this has a limited impact on the socio-economic development of the province,” Mr. Phuong said and hoped that becoming a centrally-governed city is a journey to find a sustainable development model, where cultural heritage is protected and promoted in modern development. Source: https://laodong.vn/xa-hoi/bao-ton-hue-do-thi-di-san-dau-tien-cua-ca-nuoc-1439952.ldo