Hue construction and transport report

Wandering with cows in abandoned new urban areas, a new megamall, how the high-speed rail will make Hue and Danang commuter cities, and the case of the proposed tramway.

The historic city of Hue is renowned for its ancient citadel and other historic relics from its time as Vietnam’s imperial capital. Beyond the historic buildings, Hue is a growing provincial capital with new urban areas and industrial estates.

The citadel is what most people associate with Hue

Hue is the capital of Thua Thien Hue province, though this is about to change. Thua Thien Hue province will become the federally managed Hue city on January 1, 2025. Hue will join Hanoi, Hai Phong, Danang, Ho Chi Minh City, and Can Tho as a centrally administered city.

I’ve often thought that Hue should be more famous internationally. It has many physical similarities to Chiang Mai, yet it only has a fraction of the international flights compared to Chiang Mai. Will the elevation to city status be the beginning of a new era for Hue?

I visited Hue in November 2024, during its last months as a provincial capital. I was interested in the status of some of the new urban areas and how they might be integrated into the future high-speed railway. There is also a proposal for a tramway, so I visited some roads to see how it would look.

November is the second-wettest month of the year in Hue, so it’s a gamble with the weather. I arrived on a beautiful sunny day with relatively low humidity. I was feeling good about my timing, but in the following days, it rained most of the time. As a result, it was hard to get good photos when the colour of the sky matched the abandoned concrete structures.

Train to Hue, the future high-speed railway, and proposed tramway

Hue is 93 km northwest of Da Nang, separated by the Hai Van Pass. It takes about 2 hours by car and 3 hours by train to travel between the two cities. I usually get the train when I’m travelling between Danang and Hue, even if it takes longer than a van ride. The Hai Van Pass is often ranked among the most scenic rail journeys in the world, so I like to take the train when I can.

On this trip, I encountered my first rail replacement bus in Vietnam. A freight train had derailed on the Hai Van Pass, so passengers were bused from Danang to Lang Co (the station on the north side of the Hai Han Pass).

Replacement bus at Lang Co Station

The train takes about 1 hour to go around the Hai Van Pass, while the bus journey takes 5 minutes to go through the Hai Van tunnel.

Bus entering the Hai Van Tunnel

The future high-speed railway will also have a tunnel through the Hai Van Pass, so it will save time compared to the current train. The high-speed train will reduce the travel time from Da Nang to Hue to about 20 minutes. That would effectively mean you could commute between the two cities for work. News about the high-speed rail focuses on the Hanoi-HCMC benefits (breakfast in Hanoi and lunch in Saigon), but many city pairs along the route will be brought closer together.

The North-South High-Speed Railway was officially approved in September 2024, and the government has an ambitious construction timeline of completing the railway by 2025.

The current Hue railway station is conveniently located in the city centre (as are most of the current stations on the North-South Line). The high-speed railway station will be about 8km from the city centre (about 20 minutes by car). Here is the map of all of the high-speed rail stations.

The lovely Hue Railway Station

In 2022, there was a proposal for a tramway for Hue. It got so little media attention that I might have missed it if it wasn’t for a forum link that I saw. I took a screenshot of the map from the promotional video.

Map of Hue Tramway

The red line on the map would be the closest line to the high-speed station. The big cities of Vietnam should be planning urban railways to connect the high-speed stations, including Hue.

The blue line on the map is the current railway. The current line travels by the Hue Airport, so this could be repurposed as an airport railway.

The Green Line goes out to the new urban areas in the east. Some of the new roads are wide enough to put an urban railway down the middle. Maybe the confirmation of the high-speed railway will renew the discussion about an urban railway for Hue.

Will there be a tram down the middle of this road?

Hue City

There is not much happening in the city centre to report on. The city area is on the other side of the river from the citadel. It’s a modern area, but it hasn’t caught high-rise fever like the coastal cities of Vietnam.

There are some abandoned projects in the city that I checked in on, such as the VNPT Tower. In the background is Vincom Plaza, which is the tallest building in Hue (160 metres).

VNPT Tower. In the background is Vincom Plaza.

Eco Garden Hue

Most of the new developments are to the east of the city. The citadel is to the west of the city, so these new areas do not impede on the historic area in any way.

The first place I visited was Eco Garden Hue. This is a single-developer project that has segregated areas.

Plan for Eco Garden Hue

This area is still a work in progress, though some sections are open for business. Even though it is new, some of the roads are already deteriorating. This road looked like it was painted on.

Broken road in Eco Garden Hue

Apec projects

Opposite Eco Garden Hue is the Apec Mandala Wyndham Hue project.

Apec Mandala Wyndham Hue

The construction site of this hotel is abandoned.

Construction site of Apec Mandala Wyndham Hue

Opposite Apec Mandala Wyndham Hue is the Apec Imperia Boulevard – Royal Park Hue. This has different names online, and I couldn’t find an official site or status update.

Abandoned Apec Imperia Boulevard

Projects like this highlight why new urban areas shouldn’t be built by a single developer. If something goes wrong (as it often does in Vietnam), then these new urban areas are left with empty buildings.

Apec Imperia Boulevard

Here is what it is supposed to look like when it is finished.

Apec Imperia Boulevard – Royal Park Hue

Vo Nguyen Giap Road

Vo Nguyen Giap Road

The Apec projects are along Vo Nguyen Giap Road. Vietnamese cities name streets after national heroes, and you will see the same street names in every town and city across the country. Vo Nguyen Giap is one of the most revered heroes of 20th-century history in Vietnam, so his name is often on prestigious street locations (such as the main beach road in Da Nang). He died in 2013, so it’s only recently that his name has been added to city streets. Ho Chi Minh City got its Vo Nguyen Giap Road in 2023.

If you see a Vo Nguyen Giap Road, then it is likely a major road. The new Vo Nguyen Giap Road in Hue is a north-south road through this new urban area. There is a river that runs through this area, but there is no bridge yet, so I had to detour to the nearest bridge to continue the new urban area exploration along Vo Nguyen Giap Road.

Phu Xuan City

Phu Xuan City

Phu Xuan City is the name of a new urban area and not an actual city. The project is named after the developer, which is a common naming system in Vietnam. It’s also typical in that there are segregated blocks of building styles. Some blocks have rows of similar villas, while other blocks are reserved for apartment towers.

The villas are in the style of faux classical European mansions, and the Phu Xuan office is in one of these buildings.

Phu Xuan office

This is still a work in progress, with lots of unoccupied buildings among those that have been completed.

Unfinished Phu Xuan City

Phu My An

Phu My An

Phu My An is one of the main projects of the new urban area to the east of the city. Like nearby Phu Xuan City, Phu My An has a self-contained street layout rather than just being part of a planned grid. The commercial area has rows of the same shophouse units. This is another common trait of Vietnamese new urban areas, and I haven’t seen any yet that has made me want to return.

Shops in Phu My An

The apartment blocks that face the main street are under construction, so these might make the area feel more lively and lived in once they are finished.

Phu My An apartment construction

Phu My An is diagonally opposite Phu Xuan City, and there is a gigantic traffic circle at the Vo Nguyen Giap intersection between these developments.

Phu My An at the main intersection

I have been watching this intersection ever since I saw an image of a proposed pedestrian ring.

Proposed pedestrian ring

The projected image reminds me of a pedestrian ring I saw in Macau. It would make a great landmark in addition to being a safer pedestrian crossing on a major intersection.

Elevated pedestrian ring in Macau

It doesn’t look like it is happening anytime soon, if at all. This intersection was also going to be the site of the Koreana Twin Tower Hue.

Koreana Twin Tower Hue

This corner is now the site of the Risemount Sky Apartment.

Risemount Sky Apartment

The initial images of this new urban area made New Hue look like a modern and futuristic city. It now looks like they are defaulting to the same cliched cookie-cutter shophouses and villas as in every other new urban area in Vietnam.

Aeon Mall Hue

The biggest development news in Hue in 2024 was the opening of Aeon Mall. The mall had been open for about 6 weeks when I arrived, and there was advertising around the city for the mall.

Advertisement for Aeon Mall

This is the seventh Aeon Mall in Vietnam, and it’s behind the Phu My An urban area.

Aeon Mall Hue

I went in for an air-conditioned toilet break, and there were very few people inside. Midday on a Tuesday is not the best time to gauge how it is going, so I wonder how it will go in the future. Aeon knows what they are doing when it comes to building malls, but I wonder if they calculated that the new urban area in which it is located would be completed by now?

After visiting Hue, I went back to Danang and got the train to Nha Trang. I then got a bus to Da Lat, and then to Phan Thiet for a report on coastal developments. Stay tuned for more updates.