Perched at the edge of Hanoi’s scenic West Lake, Quán Thánh stands as one of Vietnam’s most venerable Taoist temples. Believed to have been founded during the reign of Emperor Lý Thái Tổ in the 11th century, the temple was originally built to honour Trấn Vũ, the feared & revered Taoist deity known as the “Guardian of the North".

Just south of Da Nang on Vietnam’s central coast, the Marble Mountains (Ngu Hành Sơn) rise like ancient sentinels above the surrounding flatlands. These five striking limestone and marble hills are each named after one of the five elements of Eastern philosophy: metal (Kim), wood (Mộc), water (Thủy), fire (Hỏa) and earth (Thổ). Steeped in legend and spirituality, the mountains have long served as places of worship and retreat.

In 1777, the Nguyen clan was extinguished in a brutal massacre that marked the end of their reign, save for one, a fifteen-year-old boy named Nguyen Phuc Anh. Orphaned and on the run, he hid in the southern reaches of Vietnam, surviving betrayal, jungle sickness and assassins sent by the rival Tay Son brothers. Legend tells of a mysterious hermit who gave the boy refuge in the sacred mountains of Thien Thai, prophesying that the boy would reclaim his bloodline and raise an em

Located south of the Red River Delta Region 90 km's from Hanoi, Hoa Lư was a bustling capital city in turmoil during the 10th and 11th centuries. For a short time, it was the economic, political and cultural centre of medieval Vietnam. In 968 A.D, it was strategically built in a flat verdant valley, protected between steep limestone mountains, which created a virtually impenetrable barrier to human traffic.