Ngo Mon - The Moon Gate

Pictured here behind Team Scuppy is the southern, main gate into the 19th century Palace of the Nguyen Kings. The gate was designed by Emperor Minh Mang in 1833, the same year he started a bloody war that lasted three years to supress a secessionist southern rebellion at Gia Dinh (Sai Gon). The southern citadel at Gia Dinh was much larger than Hue's and was destroyed during this earlier war when the Nguyen army finally put down the rebels in 1836. What few tourists realize when they see the Palace is that its not really an ancient construction but more a kind of neoclassical work by a modernizing Vietnamese monarchy in the mid-19th century. Minh Mang had extensive relations not only with French but also sent his emissaries out to make contact with American merchants and others. He arranged to buy two steamships and then tried to have them copied. I see the Palace as the possible start for a new modern, Vietnamese kingdom built along East Asian rather than European lines, but fully incorporating mixed influences resulting from the booming trade with the West in the 1800's.