If Khai Dinh's tomb is a showpiece, the tomb of Minh Mang is a work of calm. The second emperor of the Nguyen dynasty, who reigned from 1820 to 1841, planned it himself and died before it was finished, so his son completed it in the early 1840s. It sits on the bank of the Perfume River, about nine kilometers from Hue, in a landscape of lakes, pine and lawns that feels more like a park than a burial ground. Minh Mang was a stern ruler, a Confucian scholar who tried to centralize his state and promote traditional values, and his tomb reflects the order he valued.
The layout is strictly symmetrical, with a central axis running from the entrance gate through a series of courtyards, pavilions and bridges to the burial mound at the rear, which is enclosed in a circular wall and closed to visitors. Along the axis are stone steles, honor courts with statues of mandarins and elephants, and lakes crossed by covered bridges. The architecture borrows ideas from Chinese models but adapts them to the Vietnamese landscape, with water and trees as part of the design. The effect is a kind of ordered garden, quiet and green, and it is more moving than the grand scale suggests.
Getting there is part of the pleasure. The road from Hue runs beside the river through villages of conical-hatted farmers and small shrines, and the surface is mostly smooth with gentle curves. You can also reach the area by dragon boat from the city, though on a motorcycle the lanes are enjoyable in themselves. Go in the morning for cooler air and fewer tour groups. In the rainy season the lakes fill and the grass turns bright green, but typhoons can close roads and flood the lowlands.
The tomb is part of the Complex of Hue Monuments, which UNESCO listed in 1993. A small entrance fee applies, and the grounds are open most of the day. Fuel is easy to find in Hue, which has stations along its main roads and a lively food scene along the river.
The ride from here to Da Nang over the Hai Van Pass is one of the great coastal roads in Vietnam, with long curves above the sea and views of the bay, and it is a fine way to end the day.