Visiting the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long: ticket, rules and what the centre's pages disagree on

The short answer

The Imperial Citadel of Thang Long is a World Heritage site in central Hanoi, managed by the Thang Long – Hanoi Heritage Conservation Centre, and entry is a single fee set by the city. The centre's fee pages, in Vietnamese and English, announce 100,000 VND per person per visit from 1 January 2025, the same for Vietnamese and international visitors, under Hanoi People's Council Resolution 16/2023/NQ-HĐND.[2][1] Beyond that figure, the centre's own pages do not agree on everything a visitor needs, and the sections below set out where they differ.

What the site is

The centre's English introduction describes a World Heritage site in two parts: the archaeological site at 18 Hoàng Diệu Street and the central axis of the Nguyễn Dynasty's Hanoi Citadel. It was the centre of Thăng Long, the capital of Đại Việt under the Lý, Trần and Lê dynasties from the 11th to the 18th centuries, sat on the core of the earlier Đại La citadel, and from 1954 to 1975 held the headquarters of the North Vietnamese government and army. The page dates the special-national-heritage proclamation to 2009 and the World Heritage inscription to 2010.[5]

The standing monuments it names are the Flag Tower (Kỳ Đài), the South Gate (Đoan Môn), the Kính Thiên Palace foundation, the Princess's Pagoda (Hậu Lâu) and the North Gate (Bắc Môn). The archaeological site at 18 Hoàng Diệu, about 100 metres west of the Kính Thiên foundation by the centre's description, holds overlapping remains from Đại La through the Đinh, Lý, Trần and Lê to the Nguyễn.[5]

The centre calls Đoan Môn the place where visitors begin their exploration of the old Forbidden City. Its article on the gate dates the standing structure mainly to the early Lê (15th century), with Nguyễn repairs, and describes five vaulted doorways, the central one reserved for the emperor. A 1999 excavation in front of the gate found a Lê-period paved yard at about 1.2 metres and a Trần brick road at about 1.9 metres, which the centre reads as evidence that the main gate stood here through the Lý, Trần and Lê.[9]

The fee and who pays less

The Vietnamese fee page, dated 2 January 2025, sets out reductions and exemptions; the English page, dated 31 December 2024, gives only the 100,000 VND figure and the group-booking phone line.[2][1] A reader of the English page alone would not learn that anyone pays less.

On the Vietnamese page, half price (50,000 VND) applies to people with severe disabilities, Vietnamese citizens aged 60 or over with an elderly person's card, pupils and students aged 16 or over with a card issued by a school in Vietnam's national education system, and people covered by cultural-access preference policies. Entry is free for people with especially severe disabilities and for children under 16, with a birth certificate or student card; where no document proves the age, the page applies a height under 1.3 metres.[1] On the page's wording, the elderly reduction is for Vietnamese citizens and the student reduction for cards from schools in Vietnam, so XTOUR's reading is that neither covers a foreign pensioner or a student from abroad.

Schools, organisations and travel companies are asked to register in advance by phone.[2][1]

Where the centre's pages disagree

Three conflicts are visible on pages the centre publishes or links to, and XTOUR cannot tell from them which statement is current.

• Opening days. The homepage header says the site is open on all days of the week.[3] The online booking form linked from that homepage says the citadel "does not welcome guests on Mondays".[4]
• Free age. The Vietnamese fee page makes children under 16 free.[1] The booking form says children under 15 are free.[4]
• Reductions online. The booking form says priority visitors (it lists pupils, students, elderly people, children under 15 and people with meritorious services) must bring their papers and buy at the counter to receive the discount.[4] The fee page does not say where reduced tickets are sold.[1]

The centre lists one phone line for sightseeing and a separate one for the night tour.[3] XTOUR's reading: the sightseeing line is the direct way to settle the Monday question.

The visitor rules

The centre's visitor regulations were posted in 2013, in Vietnamese and in English, and XTOUR found no newer version. They ask visitors to follow the site's guide map, bar weapons, explosives, flammable and toxic substances, and ask for "neat and polite" dress (the Vietnamese wording is "gọn gàng, lịch sự"). Cars and motorbikes are to be parked at the designated place, 19C Hoàng Diệu.[7][6]

Filming needs prior permission: the Vietnamese text asks for a letter of introduction and the consent of the centre's leadership, the English text for permission from the site's management board. Flycams are not allowed in the heritage site. Groups wanting a guide are directed to the centre's Guide and Interpretation Department.[7][6]

The rules give no definition of "polite" dress, and XTOUR adds none.

Kính Thiên Palace: the restoration that began in 2026

The Kính Thiên foundation is the centre of the axis, and it is where the site is changing. The centre's 2013 article dates the Lê palace to 1428 onwards, built on the earlier Lý–Trần palace foundation, and describes the stone dragons of the southern steps as carved in 1467. The same article says the palace "was destroyed" in 1886, when the French built an artillery headquarters on the foundation, and elsewhere that what the French destroyed was the Nguyễn kings' "royal step-over palace" on the site. It quotes the historian Phan Huy Lê that the palace seen in French photographs was that Nguyễn-era building: the Lê palace had collapsed by 1816 and was demolished to make way for it.[10] XTOUR's reading: 1816 is the end of the Lê palace and 1886 the end of the Nguyễn building on its foundation; the article itself uses the one name for both.

On 29 September 2026, the centre reports, Hanoi's leadership broke ground on a project to preserve, repair and restore the Kính Thiên Palace relic, after about 15 years of interdisciplinary research and consultation with UNESCO and ICOMOS. The article says the palace building itself no longer exists, that the city's chairman ruled out trading authenticity for speed, and that any new archaeological find during the works must be cordoned off and left for scientific advice. It names Sun Group as the company carrying out the work.[11]

The article gives no completion date and says nothing about which areas visitors can reach while the work goes on.[11] XTOUR does not know whether the foundation or its surroundings are closed.

The night tour

The centre's homepage lists a night-tour phone line separate from daytime sightseeing.[3] The only night-tour page XTOUR found is dated 15 May 2022: it described a "Decoding the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long" tour on Friday and Saturday evenings, starting at 19C Hoàng Diệu and passing through Đoan Môn, the artifact gallery, an incense offering at Kính Thiên and the 18 Hoàng Diệu remains, at a price separate from the day ticket.[12] That is a 2022 statement. XTOUR has no current night-tour schedule or price, and the Kính Thiên works may affect the route.

What XTOUR does not know

• Whether the site receives visitors on Mondays, given the homepage and the booking form disagree.
• Whether the free age is under 16 or under 15.
• Whether the 100,000 VND fee from 2025 is still the fee today; the fee pages were the newest the centre published when XTOUR read them on 11 October 2026.
• Which parts of the central axis are open during the Kính Thiên restoration.
• The current night-tour programme.
• Accessibility for visitors with limited mobility; no centre page XTOUR read addresses it.

The citadel's address is 19C Hoàng Diệu in Hanoi; see XTOUR's Hanoi page for the city. For the Temple of Literature, another city-run heritage site in Hanoi with its own fee and rules, see the Văn Miếu – Quốc Tử Giám guide. The same centre's Cổ Loa management board runs the Cổ Loa citadel, covered in the Cổ Loa guide.