I've learned that when a city is proclaimed as a country's cultural capital, it usually means it's cold. True to form, Hue (pronounced h-way) features gray-hued skies, a chilly wind drafting over the river and squat buildings crowding the winding...
When I think of cities surrounded by walls and moats, I think France in the Middle Ages (i.e. Avignon). I certainly don't think of 19th-century Vietnam.
But the Imperial City of Hue was constructed in 1802, its ruin only amplified by American...