Hanoi Highlights: The Imperial Citadel

Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long

One of my favorite places when visiting Hanoi was the Imperial Citadel. I was wandering around and looking for places of interesting history and architecture and this popped up in my searches. The citadel was first built during the 1000s and apparently stayed the Vietnamese court until the 1800s (quite an impressive length of time.) The building structures have gone through war and occupations over the centuries and in 2010 became part of the UNESCO’s World Heritage Site.

The standing structures now are still quite breathtaking to explore. I went on a random day since I was only in Hanoi for a few days, and it was so peaceful since it was in the middle of the day. The archways and stairwells were so huge and climbing up to overlook the whole area and also see some other areas of the city was quite nice. Their gardens and smaller buildings were all tucked about the area with some you could go into. I didn’t get to see all of it but the areas I was able to explore had plenty to look at.