Vietnam's World Heritage sites: what XTOUR can source from official pages

The short answer

XTOUR could read official pages for seven Vietnamese World Heritage properties on 11 October 2026: the Complex of Huế Monuments, Ha Long Bay – Cat Ba Archipelago, Hội An Ancient Town, Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary, Phong Nha – Kẻ Bàng National Park, the Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long and the Tràng An Landscape Complex. Their dates and the bodies that state them are below.

UNESCO's own list pages for Viet Nam and its properties (whc.unesco.org) refused XTOUR's requests that day, as did the Huế Monuments Conservation Centre's website and the Citadel of the Hồ Dynasty's. So this article does not give a national count, and where a site's own body could not be read, it says whose page is cited instead. The main second source is the Thăng Long – Hà Nội Heritage Conservation Centre, a body under the Hanoi People's Committee that publishes short pages on Vietnam's World Heritage sites.[13][10] One UNESCO page did answer: the Committee's 2023 decision on Ha Long Bay.[2]

Complex of Huế Monuments (1993)

The Thăng Long centre's page says the World Heritage Committee recognised the complex at its 17th session, held in Colombia from 6 to 11 December 1993, and calls it the first Vietnamese property on the list. It describes the complex as lying along both banks of the Hương (Perfume) River, in Huế and nearby areas, and names the Đại Nội (the inner Imperial City) with 253 works, seven clusters of tombs of nine Nguyễn emperors, the Nam Giao esplanade, Hổ Quyền and điện Hòn Chén.[1] The Huế centre's own site (hueworldheritage.org.vn) reset the connection twice, so XTOUR has no statement from the body that runs it. See Huế.

Ha Long Bay – Cat Ba Archipelago (1994, 2000, 2023)

The Committee's 2023 decision recalls the bay's earlier inscriptions at its sessions in Phuket in 1994 and Cairns in 2000, and approves extending the property to the Cat Ba Archipelago under natural criteria (vii) and (viii), renaming it Ha Long Bay – Cat Ba Archipelago.[2] Ha Long Bay – Cat Ba Archipelago: what UNESCO inscribed covers what that extension includes and what the Committee has asked since. The management board on the Quảng Ninh side now calls itself the World Heritage Management Board of Ha Long Bay – Yên Tử.[14] See Hạ Long.

Hội An Ancient Town and Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary (1999)

The two were inscribed at the same Committee session, under different criteria. The Hội An centre's heritage overview says that on 4 December 1999 the 23rd session in Marrakech inscribed Hội An Ancient Town under criteria (ii) and (v).[3] The Thăng Long centre's page on Mỹ Sơn says the sanctuary was chosen at the same session in December 1999 under criterion (ii), as an example of cultural exchange, and criterion (iii), as unique evidence of a vanished Asian civilisation; it describes Mỹ Sơn as the Hindu sanctuary of the Champa kingdom, whose art developed continuously there from the 7th to the 13th century, with about 70 temple-towers and 32 inscriptions.[6] The Mỹ Sơn heritage board's homepage states the year, 1999, and its "About us" page gives the day, 4 December 1999, in Marrakech, Morocco.[5][4]

They are different places. The Mỹ Sơn board gives its address as Thôn Mỹ Sơn, xã Thu Bồn, Thành phố Đà Nẵng; the Thăng Long centre's older page places it in Duy Phú commune, Duy Xuyên district, Quảng Nam province.[6][4] Neither is in Hội An. XTOUR treats Hội An as a base for Mỹ Sơn, not as where it is. See Hội An's old-town ticket and visiting Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary.

Phong Nha – Kẻ Bàng National Park (2003, 2015, 2025)

The park's management board lists four UNESCO recognitions on its homepage: World Natural Heritage in 2003 on geological and geomorphological criteria, a second recognition in 2015 on biodiversity and ecosystem criteria, in 2025 the transboundary property "Phong Nha – Kẻ Bàng National Park and Hin Nam No National Park" with Laos, and in 2026 a World Biosphere Reserve, which is a UNESCO designation but not a World Heritage one.[7] The Thăng Long centre dates the first to July 2003, at the 27th session in Paris.[8]

The two pages disagree on the province. The Thăng Long centre's page, posted in 2023, places the park in Quảng Bình province; the park board's own contact block says xã Phong Nha, tỉnh Quảng Trị, with an email address on the Quảng Trị government domain.[7][8] XTOUR's reading is that the older page predates the 2025 province mergers rather than contradicting the board. The 2025 province mergers and place names explains why. See Phong Nha and Phong Nha – Kẻ Bàng's caves and routes.

Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long – Hà Nội (2010)

The Thăng Long – Hà Nội Heritage Conservation Centre, which manages the site, gives the moment precisely: at 20:30 on 31 July 2010, local time in Brazil, or 06:30 on 1 August 2010 in Vietnam, the World Heritage Committee adopted the resolution recognising the central sector of the Imperial Citadel as World Cultural Heritage. The same centre also manages the Cổ Loa relic area; the recognition it describes names only the central sector of the Imperial Citadel.[10][9] See the Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long and Hanoi.

Tràng An Landscape Complex (2014)

The Tràng An management board calls the complex the first mixed (cultural and natural) World Heritage site of Vietnam and of Southeast Asia, recognised for cultural, aesthetic and geological criteria: a humid tropical karst landscape tied to the Hoa Lư capital of the Đinh, Lê, Lý and Trần, and to more than 30,000 years of human adaptation.[11] Its page on the area gives the year, 2014, and describes three adjoining zones covering more than 6,000 hectares: the Hoa Lư ancient-capital relic area, the Tràng An – Tam Cốc – Bích Động scenic area, and the Hoa Lư primary forest. On the board's description, Tam Cốc and the Hoa Lư ancient capital are parts of one property, in districts and cities of Ninh Bình, not in Hanoi.[12] Tràng An, Tam Cốc, Bái Đính or Hoa Lư compares the parts.

What XTOUR could not source

• Citadel of the Hồ Dynasty. Its official site (thanhnhaho.vn) could not be opened on 11 October 2026, and the Thăng Long centre's list of Vietnam's World Heritage pages has no entry for it.[13] XTOUR therefore states nothing about it beyond its name.
• Yên Tử. The Ha Long Bay board's name now pairs Ha Long Bay with Yên Tử, and its site has a menu entry for "Di sản Yên Tử" (Yên Tử heritage).[14] XTOUR has not read an inscription decision, a date or a property name for it, and does not list it with a year.
• UNESCO's list and counts. Without the list page, XTOUR does not say how many properties Vietnam has or whether any other property belongs here.

For the intangible lists, see Vietnam's intangible heritage; for the country, Vietnam.