Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum - darkometer rating : 7 - As the name says: the mausoleum of Vietnam 's great communist leader Ho Chi Minh in the capital Hanoi . It's one of the " Big 4 " of such mausoleums in the world and as such one the country's premier dark tourism sites too. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: Ho Chi Minh didn't want a mausoleum – let's get that point out of the way first, as it's always pointed out with fervour by Western guidebooks. Indeed, in his will he asked to be cremated rather, and his ashes to be scattered in different parts of the country. And he definitely wouldn't have wanted as grand a mausoleum as he got after his death, having been a rather modest and unassuming man in life who wasn't keen on the usual symbols of power. (On the other hand, the same cannot be said of Mao , but Mao too requested that he be cremated rather than be put in a mausoleum – and he wasn't granted this wish either.) In any case, after his death in 1969 – the Vietnam War was still in full swing – his successors must have thought their former leader's remains were too valuable to be cremated. So they kept his body – and in 1975, after the country's official victory in the war, Ho was finally put in this mausoleum. Vietnam received help from Russia in the embalming and preservation techniques required, which the Russians themselves had perfected in the preservation of their revolutionary leader Lenin (whose mausoleum apparently was the inspiration for having one for Ho too). Later, they would lend a hand to China passing on the acquired knowledge second hand, as it were, when Mao died and the subsequent Chinese leadership also preferred to preserve the big man. (No.