Drippy old stone walls: The Nguyen empire

I made a brief stop in the city of Huế as I meandered back down south. Huế was the seat of the Nguyen dynasty's Vietnamese empire for 143 years until 1945, when the last emperor, Bao Dai, gave up his throne and handed over power to President Ho Chi Minh.

They were the last great ruling family, and so are tinged with a bit of nostalgia here. But they must have millions of descendants since every third Vietnamese person I meet seems to have the last name Nguyen. (Update: Wikipedia says 40% of the Vietnamese are called Nguyen: "The Nguyễn Dynasty awarded many people the surname Nguyễn during their rule, and many criminals also changed their surname to Nguyễn to avoid prosecution. Thus, many people having this surname are not necessarily related.")

The city was pretty squalid. But I took some photos of the citadel, the emperors' huge walled-in enclosure, which included a Forbidden City! The Forbidden City was once off limits to everyone except the emperors, their concubines and a few trustworthy eunuchs. I never figured out which part was the forbidden part. I did wander into some offices and a lady told me I wasn't allowed and pointed toward the door.

I made a guess at what must have been the Forbidden City and have noted it below.

There were some hedge animals, but I don't think the restorers put a great priority on them, considering how they came out. They're probably nothing like the hedge animals of the Nguyen golden age.

What is this supposed to be? It looks like a cricket?

The sideways dragon was also perplexing. Maybe it is supposed to look as if it is about to take off and soar, a fitting motif for the Nguyen empire? I'll look into this more.
Costumes below.Two very different dragon faces on two outfits, for two different moods maybe. (The seam here makes the dragon look a bit googly-eyed, but the effect must have been intentional since the robe was stitched for a king.)

The Forbidden City! Maybe. It had that feel, though.That's the Forbidden City peeking out above this monster's tail.

I don't know if this romantic path was part of the Forbidden City. I hope so.

And this was once a little cottage in the middle of a small island surrounded by a moat set within the citadel -- maybe, maybe not part of the Forbidden City. This also could have been the place where the Nguyens wrote down their imperial thoughts.

The walkway stones were very slick with moisture and mold. Tourists were constantly slipping, most catching themselves before they fell on their bums. I bet in the old days, the Nguyens had 50 men at least to keep the stones scrubbed dry.This replica of a royal ship (that probably floated down the Perfume River in Hue) reminded me of our infamous little boat that went over the Hiram Falls! Was it called the U.S.S. Enterprise? I can't quite remember.