Located in central Vietnam halfway between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Hue City is full of history. The former Imperial City became the country's capital under the 19th-century Nguyen dynasty, and it was during this time that the three-square-mile walled Citadel was built using medieval designs. It contained formal gardens, pagodas and moats drenched with lotus flowers. Although extensively damaged in successive wars, first against the French and in the 1968 Battle of Hue during the Vietnam War, the street-plan of the Citadel remains. It's in the new city south of the Huong River, fragrantly named "Perfume River" in English, where most hotels are located, however. Several cluster along the serpentine banks, dotted with colorful dragon boats and crossed by the Trang Tien Bridge, lit at night by a necklace of constantly changing colored lightbulbs.