Hue lights up historic Flag Tower

Hue is not as vibrant as Ho Chi Minh City or as young as Da Nang. The impression of many visitors when coming to Hue is that it's a quiet and gentle place, making the nightlife in Hue unique. Since February this year, the Hue Flag Tower (or Kỳ Đài) was upgraded with 1000 LED lights. The lighted Hue Flag Tower has become a nightly attraction for the old imperial city and is also a feature of the Hue Festival.

Phan Thanh Hải, director of the local government’s Huế Monuments Conservation Centre, which manages the dynasty’s relic system, said the light-up programme was to attract more visitors to Huế, the former imperial capital city of Việt Nam.

“Tourists to the city have complained about the shortage of night activities, and the city is known to ‘sleep early’. Therefore, we installed lights at the tower to turn Huế into a nocturnal beauty,” he said, adding that the centre had a roadmap to light up more monuments at night.

The Flag Tower, or Kỳ Đài, was built in 1807 for observation and flag signalling. It consists of three pyramidal platforms, several canons and a large flagpole. It was at this tower where the flags were changed in 1945, ending the imperial regime in the country. Besides lighting the flag tower, in the near future, Hue will also try to revive the canons on the flag tower.