In 1636, Lord Nguyen Phuc Lan was the first to mark the establishment and development of a cultural capital for the nation of Dai Viet by choosing Kim Long (West of Hue City) as the capital of the South. Through the historical upheavals of the 9 Lords and 13 Kings of the Nguyen dynasty, the unproductive area of Chau O - Chau Ly had experienced significant development from Phu Xuan - Thuan Hoa City, Imperial Capital (1802) into a place attracting various human and material resources as well as intellectuals from all over the country, and nowadays it is the cultural, tourist, educational, training, and scientific research centre of Vietnam. Hue's complex of historical vestiges was recognised as a "World Cultural Heritage" by UNESCO (12/1993).
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