One of the oddly well known attractions in Vietnam is not on any mainstream tour itinerary.¹ Although it’s been closed for many years, out of context images of a decayed dragon monument appear in marketing material for tourists in and out of the country. It’s commonly included in day trips guided by locals and bookable as Airbnb experiences or similar.

Screenshot from Instagram

Screenshot from Airbnb

Screenshot from Tripadvisor

Only a few years ago, the mythology of Hồ Thủy Tiên (Water Fairy Lake) theme park was a bit more mysterious and sensational. Accounts claimed the only way to find the park was by directions passed from one backpacker to another² and tales spoke of starving crocodiles left to fend for themselves inside the park’s aquarium.³ Today the crumbling water park is listed clearly on Google Maps⁴ with reviews (4.5 stars) and is often featured in travel guides for Huế. There is definitely no remaining crocodiles as they were reportedly rescued and rehomed at a wildlife park⁵ if they ever existed at all.

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Clickbait articles claim the park is largely unknown to locals and is a horror show that only brave adventurers could enter.² In present day reality, there is not a xe ôm driver in Huế that doesn’t know how to get to the park. The grassy knolls and paths surrounding the lake make a nice setting for locals to exercise in the morning and meet for picnics on the weekend.⁶ Aside from the hulking curiosity of the dragon building in the middle of the lake, most of the rest of the grounds are only conspicuous because of the run down facilities and weird sculptures distributed around the property. Hidden away though, are other leftovers from its time as a functioning water park.

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Reports differ about exactly when the park opened and closed. Research into the original literature yields articles that indicate development started around 2000⁷ and the middle of 2004 brought the park’s opening day.^7,8 Only a few references including images depicting the amusement park in it’s operational period could be unearthed. ^8–10 Hồ Thủy Tiên was not very successful and closed in 2011.⁷ Up until 2013 or 2014 developers still had intentions for reopening and the property was sold off with a plan for expanding the park and adding additional facilities.^5,7 Even as recent as 2020, discussion regarding future plans continued⁶.

Photos from 2013 on the local news site Dân Trí are some of the oldest online to document¹¹ Hồ Thủy Tiên after it’s closure and already appear to demonstrate a significant period of neglect. By 2015 this small amusement park had clearly joined the ranks of the world's abandoned theme parks, and started appearing on English language websites, usually the travel blogs of backpackers visiting South East Asia^3,12,13. Pictures from 2015 are the first to provide a detailed view of the amusement park inside and out. Graffiti visible in the 2015 photos is dated at least as far back as 2012.¹²

Prior to 2015, it’s reasonable to surmise that the neglected theme park was mostly unheard of. But once the location was highlighted on major English language media outlets¹⁴, it was quickly pushed into mainstream interest. Presumptively Huffposts article² in early 2016 made the most impact in establishing the hype and lore of the abandoned water park in Huế early on. Google search trends also indicate the park had captured the interest of the English-speaking world around this time. Before the end of 2016, Hồ Thủy Tiên had it’s first review¹⁵ on TripAdvisor. Within a short time Instagram was being saturated with photos of the iconic dragon in the middle of the lake as it was a common stop on the Southeast Asian travel circuit. By 2019, Thuy Tien Lake had it’s own hostel¹⁶ located conveniently on the perimeter of the park.

Aside from the massive dragon statue atop the aquarium in the center of the lake, visitors can find water slides, a lazy river, and a children’s pool playground to complete the aquatic themed attractions. Older photographic evidence shows that the lake also featured swan-shaped paddle boats to ride, but no fragments of these remain, at least above water. On the opposite end of the lake from the dragon aquarium is an amphitheater and a motion simulator ride hidden inside a nondescript building often accompanied by cattle. Distributed around the park are numerous sculptures in varied states of deterioration. Veiled completely by the forest are around eight small A-framed villas.

In perspective, Thủy Tiên Lake is a gauche and unimpressive specimen of entertainment parks both active and abandoned. It’s attractiveness is owed almost entirely to the captivating visuals provided by the weathered dragon structure. It’s continued popularity is enabled by it’s ease of access, since the custodians present usually allow entry for what is effectively an admissions fee.¹⁷ Consequently, the lake is a de-facto legitimate tourist attraction, free from much of the normal secrecy and risk associated with urban exploration locations in other countries. These factors are further accelerated by the convergence with the ongoing aesthetics mimicry trends accompanying travel photography on Instagram.^4,18,19 Like several other amusement parks in Asia²⁰ which were unheard of when they were open, this abandoned water park reached it’s unforseen peak potential of global fame only after it had been closed for years.