Thien Mu Pagoda

Thien Mu was founded in 1601, early in the Nguyen family's rule of the south, and its tower has become the shorthand image of Hue. The Phuoc Duyen tower, added in the 1840s, is octagonal and seven storeys high, each level once holding a gilded Buddha. Around it stand the working parts of a monastery: a triple gate, a hall with a large seated Buddha, a bronze bell cast in the early eighteenth century, and a stele carried on a marble tortoise. Behind, past a courtyard of frangipani and bonsai, monks live and study in buildings closed to visitors. The bluff gives a long view up and down the river.

What you actually see

• Phuoc Duyen tower - the seven-storey octagonal brick tower of the 1840s above the river.
• The great bell - a bronze bell cast in the early eighteenth century, housed in its own pavilion.
• The stele tortoise - an inscribed stone slab carried on the back of a marble tortoise.
• The river terrace - the view over the Perfume River from the steps below the tower.

When to go

February to April is the driest window in a famously wet city. Early morning is calm and cool, and chanting from the main hall carries across the courtyards; by mid-morning the dragon boats unload and the terrace fills. Cycling out along the river bank takes about twenty minutes from the centre. An hour covers the site comfortably.

Honest expectations

It is smaller than photographs suggest and the tower cannot be climbed, so a visit is a lap of the courtyards. Boat groups arrive together and the terrace becomes crowded and loud. Hawkers work the steps and the car park. The monastery buildings behind are private, which limits how far you can walk, and shoulders and knees need covering.

Nearby

The Imperial City lies downstream and the royal tombs further up the valley.