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The Ngọ Môn (Chinese character: 午門), also known as the Gate of Noon, is the main gate to the Imperial City, Huế, located within the citadel of Huế. It was built in 1833 in the traditional Vietnamese Nguyen style under the rule of Emperor Minh Mang.<br/><br/>Emperor Gia Long ordered the construction of Hue Citadel in 1805. The vast complex is built according to the notions of fengshui or Chinese geomancy, but following the military principles of the noted 18th century French military architect Sebastien de Vauban. The result is an unusual and elegant hybrid, a Chinese-style Imperial City carefully aligned with surrounding hills, islands and waterways, but defended by massive brick walls between 6-12 metres high and 2.5 metres thick, punctuated by towers, ramparts, a massive earth glacis, and 24 Vauban-inspired bastions.<br/><br/>The entire complex was further protected by wide moats, crossed by gracefully arched stone bridges leading to ten gates, the chief of which is Cua Ngo Mon, the south-east facing ‘Meridian Gate’. To compound the exotic hybrid effect, guard posts designed as Chinese-style miradors, complete with sweeping eaves crowned by imperial dragons, surmounted each gate. Finally, directly in front of the Ngo Mon Gate, a massive brick fort 18 metres high was constructed both as an additional barrier against malign spirits, and as a defensive redoubt.<br/><br/>The area within the Citadel - in all, 520 hectares (1300 acres) - comprises three concentric enclosures, the Civic, Imperial and Forbidden Purple Cities. Access is by way of ten fortified gates, each of which is reached by a low, arched stone bridge across the moat. In imperial times a cannon would sound at 5am and 9pm to mark the opening and closing of the gates.<br/><br/>Hue was the imperial capital of the Nguyen Dynasty between 1802 and 1945. The tombs of several emperors lie in and around the city and along the Perfume River. Hue is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Naxi or Nakhi are an ethnic group inhabiting the foothills of the Himalayas in the northwestern part of Yunnan Province, as well as the southwestern part of Sichuan Province in China. The Naxi are thought to have come originally from Tibet and, until recently, maintained overland trading links with Lhasa and India.<br/><br/> The Naxi form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. The Naxi are traditionally followers of the Dongba religion. Through both Han Chinese and Tibetan cultural influences, they adopted Tibetan Buddhism and, to a lesser extent, Taoism, in the 10th century.<br/><br/> The Old Town of Lijiang dates back more than 800 years and was once an important town on the old Tea Horse Road.