Climb inside the dragon that outlived the water park

Why it's unique

The water park cost about 70 billion dong, began construction in 2001, opened in 2004 and failed almost at once. It then sat abandoned for close to twenty years, which is how a dragon in a lake outside Hue became one of the most photographed derelict sites in Southeast Asia.

What makes it a record is not the ruin but the decision. The province took the land back in 2017, and in 2024 it ruled that the dragon would not be demolished: it was handed to the city's Green Park Centre to be kept and repaired for visitors. The clean-up that followed cleared the water-music stage, paved it over and removed what was left of the rides, then laid a 2 km stone path around the lake and lit it.

So a government looked at a failed 70-billion-dong project, removed everything that had been built to make money, and kept the one part that never worked as the centrepiece of a free public park. Abandoned places are common and demolition is common. Deciding in public to preserve the failure, and then building a path around it, is not.

Before you go

Almost every English-language page about this place is out of date, including the well-known ones. There is no guard, no 20,000 dong and no liability waiver. It is a public park and you walk in, free.

There are also no waterslides and no aquarium any more. If you are coming for derelict slides and broken fish tanks you have missed them by about a year. What is here is the dragon, the lake, a 2 km paved circuit and pine forest.

The stairs inside the dragon were cleaned up and visitors do climb to the opening at its head for the view over the lake, and the spray paint on the interior walls was left there rather than scrubbed off. It is still a bare concrete shell, so wear something other than sandals.

Go late in the day. The lakeside path is lit now, and evening is when locals come to walk and cycle.

A second phase costing nearly 14 billion dong is planned and will add camping and picnic areas, so expect works on parts of the site.