The H'mong King Palace is a popular tourist attraction in Ha Giang Province
Bao said the family wasn't informed about the fact that the palace was recognised as a national cultural and architectural heritage site in 1993 until officials asked them to move out so that they could turn it into a museum in 2002.
Even though they were apologised to and given the promise that their house would not be used by the public, in 2012, Ha Giang Province People's Committee then granted the land use rights where the palace is situated to Dong Van District's Department of Culture.
"We are still alive and living in this place. It's unacceptable that the land use rights were given to the Dong Van Department of Culture," Bao said. He went on to say that he had never sold or given away the palace to anyone.
On August 23, Vice-chairman of Ha Giang Province People's Committee Tran Duc Quy said they would recall the wrongly-issued certificate, ownership of the palace and other property on the land. "It's wrong to issue the certificate to the Dong Van District's Department of Culture. We'll revoke that decision," he said.
According to Quy, they reviewed state-owned lands in 2012 and issued a certificate of land use rights to a local agency for better management. When Vuong family moved out of the palace in 2002 for renovation, Bao's father was given VND320m (USD13,700) and six other households of the Vuong family living there were given VND30m each to build houses.
Lying some 130 kilometres north of Ha Giang Town, the century-old palace is still the largest construction in the area and a unique special architecture style.
A file photo of H'mong King Vuong Chinh Duc and his family
According to a tour guide who is also a woman member of the King's family at the palace, Vuong Chinh Duc (1865 - 1947), known as the king of the H'mong or Meo ethnic minority group in the area, built the palace which cost 150,000 Indochina silver coins equivalent to VND150 billion (USD 6.61 million). Duc earned his fortune from growing and trading opium.
The palace is built from stone, fir wood and terracotta tiling in a combined Chinese, French and H'mong traditional architectural style. Covering a total area of 1,120 square metres, the palace was used as a residence and fortress during the Vuong Dynasty.
