Kim Long

About this audio guide

This guide to Kim Long, a riverside ward in Hue, follows the vanishing craft behind the neighborhood's garden houses, built entirely by mortise and tenon joinery without a single nail. It traces Kim Long's earlier life as the seat the Nguyen lords ruled from before the walled citadel existed, and the mandarin families who could afford the finest joiners to carve their doors and lintels. You will hear how many of these wooden houses once stood across the city. Look for a surviving timber frame behind any garden gate along the lane.