Perfume River Hue, Vietnam

Perfume River Hue Introduction

Perfume river with Truong Tien bridge is the iconic symbol of Hue. It is the pride of the people, the romance of Hue city, and the inspiration for a lot of artists and musicians. Traveling to Hue, you should take a dragon boat trip to go upstream to admire its beauty as well as understand more about the origin of the Huong River.

Why do we call the Perfume River?

The Perfume River Hue (in Vietnamese: Sông Hương or Huong River) has several stories about its name.

The first story is about the incense-making village on the riverbank, the fragrance from sandalwood, cinnamon, lemongrass made the river smell very nice so the locals named it for its Perfume River.

Another story about is a kind of flower on the riverbank name “Thach Xuong Bo”. The scientific name is “Acorus Gramineus Soland”, its flower falls into the river down to the city and smells nice so that why the local named for it as Perfume River. In the past, the Perfume River Hue had some other names such as Huong Tra River, Kim Tra, or Lo Dung river.

The River Geography

Perfume River Hue has two main sources derives from Truong Son mountain range. The main line of the Ta Trach is about 67 km, originating from the Truong Son Dong mountain. It flows to the area of Bach Ma National Park in the Northwest with 55 spectacular waterfalls. Then it flows through the Nam Dong town and then confluence with Huu Trach line at the crossroads.

From a Bang Lang crossroad to Thuan An estuary, the Perfume River is 33 km long and flows very slowly (because the river level is not higher than the sea). When flowing around the foothills of the Emerald Mountain, the river is more green – this is the Hon Chen Temple area. There is a very deep area here.

The Huong River is said to be beautiful when admiring it from the source and when it flows around the foothills, through the dense forests of the tropical flora. The river flows slowly through villages of Kim Long, Nguyet Ha, Vy Da, Dong Ba, Gia Hoi, Cho Dinh, Nam Pho, Bao Vinh. It used to be the inspiration of tourists as they sailing along the river to see the landscape and listen to traditional Hue folk song melodies.

Perfume River in Hue Imperial Citadel Fengshui

It is not random that the Nguyen dynasty chose Hue to set up the capital city. A long time ago, the Fengshui teller determined that Hue is the perfect Fengshui land to build up the country because of the Perfume River. If you look over the Hue Imperial Citadel, easily you can see in front of Hue Citadel is the Ngu Binh Mountain (Bang Mountain) as the screen. Then there are 2 islets as the white tiger on the right, and the green dragon on the left of the Perfume River Hue Vietnam guarding and protecting Hue Imperial Citadel.

Vietnamese people and in Asian thought, if your houses get good Fengshui, you will get the richness and family members are always in great health, the dynasty lasts forever!

How to enjoy this poetic and beautiful river?

There are some ways to explore this beautiful river such as drive a motorbike with helmets to Vong Canh Hills to enjoy its romantic beauty at the sunrise or sunset. Moreover, you can take a dragon boat to go along the Perfume River Vietnam. Or you can also book Hue City Tour at The Best Hue City Tour Travel to enjoy this beautiful river as well as the must-visit attractions as known as the Unesco World Heritages.