An Bang Cemetery- City Of Ghosts Hue

Introduction

An Bang cemetery – the City of ghost Hue is a small fishing village of An Bang, Phu Vang, Thua Thien-Hue of Vietnam. This is the place where the dead rest in billion-dollar graves. It is commented by the Daily Mail (UK) as ” an eerie, colorful, and lavish cemetery.”

An Bang Cemetery Location

Taking the 49 highway from Hue City to Thuan An beach and then continuing along the coastal road about 30km to Vinh An commune (Phu Vang district), you will get to a local cemetery about 40ha with full of luxurious graves that are taller than the people’s houses, varied in design.

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Why is it called the ” City of Ghosts”?

According to Ms. Tran Hy (a villager): “In the past, An Bang was just a poor fishing village. People’s lives mainly depended on seafaring. Later, the families had people abroad. After doing business successfully, they sent money back to their parents. Since then, people here have become better off and they started thinking about building a mausoleum for filial piety.

Fierce competitions among families in the village took place. They have tried to build the graves for their ancestors more beautiful and luxurious as the surrounding tombs as a glory for the family. If the neighbor’s grave is more beautiful, luxurious, they will break the old down to build another more beautiful one.

What makes An Bang Cemetery so famous?

The resort paradise of the dead mentioned by the Daily Mail

This cemetery is also a place that was once likened by the Daily Mail as a luxurious “resort paradise” of the dead.

“A quiet fishing village outside Vietnam’s ancient imperial capital Hue has become an off-the-beaten-track tourist attraction for its bizarre graveyard, featuring colorful and lavish tombs.

Fishermen in the tiny fishing town of An Bang compete to build increasingly taller and elaborate resting places, which are significantly more opulent than the humble homes of the villagers.

Families in the community pour up to $70,000 into magnificent mausoleums for their ancestors – a serious luxury in a country where the annual per capita income is $2,000.“

Immediately after the article was published, many international readers couldn’t help but admire and compare this mausoleum to the same as the ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids as a place for kings to rest and be reborn after death.

The Unique cemetery in Vietnam and the world

In Vietnam, there have been many articles written about this cemetery and likened it to the most luxurious “ghost city” at the present. Here, the tombs are built and designed by the people with full designs, carved with sophisticated patterns, and are taller than the houses.

According to the concept of “What you need in this life, you would need them in the afterlife”. Since 2003 people in An Bang village have started racing to build graves with massive architecture, the largest scale in the country.

Currently, this area has thousands of tombs ranging from 40-400m2 wide with gates up to 7-8m high. Each tomb here has a construction cost of several hundred million to several billion Dong. Even some families have built a grave worth billion of Dong but are not satisfied or the tomb is lower than their neighbors will destroy it and build it to equal or higher than the others.

Amazing luxurious architecture graves

The tombs overlap with all colors and shapes stretching on the immense sand dunes, making us feel like entering a deep and mysterious land different from the poor appearance of the An Bang village.

Most of the graves are designed to resemble Khai Dinh’s mausoleum with an extremely high level of sophistication. Depending on the religious views of each family, the tombs in An Bang cemetery will have many different styles such as Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian styles, many tombs are built in Tibetan style.

In addition, many families also built mausoleums in the style of luxury villas, with gardens, ornamental plants, cars, scooters, and carved patterns no less than the artists of the king’s time.

The place where “the dead feed to the living”

Many people here joke that entering this area looking for a few hundred million graves is very difficult, but it is very easy to see billions of dong graves.

The reason for this saying is because, since the custom of building large graves with a value of billions of dong, people in An Bang have more sources of work. The workers here are getting busier and busier, the income will also be higher than normal jobs. In particular, if you are highly skilled, the amount of money you earn can reach tens of millions of dong per month. In addition, tomb carvers also benefit from this.

Even many farmers who have the profession of transporting sand, stones, and bricks by buffalo carts also have stable jobs every year thanks to this.

According to the locals, in the past, when this 40-hectare cemetery was newly built, life was a bit upside down spiritually, and many people felt afraid to go out in the evening. Especially the children, most of them are afraid when night falls.

But later on, they considered this a normal thing and a source of livelihood for many families without a stable jobs. Compared to the days of fishing in the sea, people’s lives are much better now.

How to visit An Bang Cemetery?

If you stay in Hue or Da Nang, Hoi An, you can book Vietnam Car Rentals from Hoi An Private Taxi Travel to visit An Bang Cemetery- City of Ghosts Hue. Plus, you can book Hoi An to Hue by private car to travel from Hoi An to Hue and stop at An Bang Cemetery with our professional English-speaking driver.