Hoi An Ancient Town — a Trading Port That Survived Four Centuries
From the sixteenth century, Japanese, Chinese and Western merchants all traded here. The architecture of the old town still carries traces of all three.
This page is translated from Vietnamese. Prices and opening hours are checked against Vietnamese sources — see the Vietnamese version for the most recent update.
Photo: katiebordner · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons (cropped to 16:9 and resized)
Hoi An sits on the Thu Bồn River, about 30km from central Da Nang. On 4 December 1999, at its 23rd session, UNESCO inscribed the ancient town of Hoi An as a World Cultural Heritage Site.
Since the administrative merger of 1 July 2025, Quảng Nam has been absorbed into Đà Nẵng. Hoi An now belongs to the city of Đà Nẵng — older articles that say Quảng Nam still point to the same place; only the name of the administrative unit has changed.
Why a trading port survived intact
The answer is a little backwards: Hoi An survived because it was forgotten.
From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, Hoi An was one of the busiest international trading ports in Southeast Asia. Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese and Dutch merchants all came through, and many stayed and built quarters of their own.
Then the Thu Bồn River silted up and large ships could no longer reach the town. The port role moved to Da Nang. Hoi An lost its economic standing and stopped growing — there was no wave of new construction to tear the old streets down.
Because of that, what stands today is not a reconstruction but real streets and real houses, most of them still lived in and still trading inside.
Three cultures layered on top of one another
Walk through the old town and you will notice three kinds of architecture standing side by side:
Vietnamese tube houses — narrow at the front and running deep back, with a light well in the middle for daylight and ventilation. Many run all the way from Trần Phú street through to the riverbank, because goods once came straight off the boats into the storerooms.
Chinese assembly halls — meeting and worship houses for each community: Fujian, Cantonese, Chaozhou, Hainan. Heavily coloured, full of ceramics and carving.
The Japanese Bridge — built by Japanese merchants in the early seventeenth century to link the Japanese quarter with the Chinese one.
The Japanese Bridge after its restoration
This is the detail older articles have not caught up with.
The bridge went through a major restoration: work began on 28 December 2022, took 19 months, and it reopened on 3 August 2024 at a total cost of more than 20.2 billion đồng.
The result was controversial when it was unveiled, because the bridge looked too new next to the weathered image everyone knew. The conservation team explained that the old colour came from time and moss, and that the principle of the restoration was to keep the original fabric and make sure the bridge stands for a long while yet.
If you have seen photographs of a mossy old bridge and arrive to find something different, that is why. The colour will settle again in a few years.
The full-moon night when the town goes dark
On the evening of the 14th of each lunar month, the old town switches off its electric lights and runs on lanterns alone. People float paper lanterns down the Hoài River, and there is bài chòi singing and traditional games out in the streets.
This is Hoi An at its best and also at its most crowded. If you come for it, book early and accept the crush.
If you want the streets empty instead, go before eight in the morning — the shops are not all open, the light is still low, and you get to look at the architecture rather than at the backs of other people.
Tickets and getting around
The old town ticket costs roughly 80,000 – 120,000₫ and lets you choose five sites from the list of open monuments: old houses, assembly halls, museums, clan houses.
What many visitors do not realise: you do not need a ticket to walk around. The ticket is for entering specific monuments. If you only plan to walk, eat and take photographs, buying one is not compulsory.
The old town is closed to motorbikes and cars for much of the day. Park outside and walk — it is small, and you can cover it in an hour or two.
What to eat in Hoi An
A few dishes here are only really good here:
Cao lầu — thick noodles with very little broth, served with char siu pork and fresh herbs. Locals say the real thing has to be made with water from the Bá Lễ well.
Mì Quảng — softer noodles than cao lầu and more broth, usually with peanuts and grilled rice paper.
Bánh mì Hội An — internationally famous, generously filled, with a strong pâté.
Bánh vạc (white rose) and fried wontons — the specialities of the older restaurants in town.
Chè bắp — sweet corn soup made with corn from Cẩm Nam, eaten in the afternoon.
The dry season, and the season the town floods
February to August is dry and comfortable for walking.
September to December is the rainy season, and here is the thing to know: the old town floods at the height of it, because it sits right on the river. In some years the water reaches inside the houses and the streets are navigated by boat. If you are booking a riverside room in those months, check the forecast first.
Combining it with other places
Hoi An sits between Da Nang and Tam Kỳ and combines easily:
- The Marble Mountains are exactly halfway along the Da Nang – Hoi An road
- My Son Sanctuary is about 40km away, best done in the morning
- The Bay Mau coconut forest is on the edge of town, with basket boat rides
If you would rather someone else handle the logistics, there is a Hoi An afternoon tour that arrives as the lanterns come on, and a coconut forest tour that can be combined with the Old Town in the evening.
Places
- My Son Sanctuary — Ten Centuries of Cham TemplesBuilt continuously for almost ten centuries, then largely lost in a single bombing in 1969. What is left is still enough to show the scale.
- Bay Mau Coconut Forest — Nipa Palms, Basket Boats and a Wartime BaseThese are water coconuts, not the kind that bears drinking nuts. The canopy is dense enough that a whole resistance base once sat underneath it.
- Cu Lao Cham — the Island That Banned Plastic Bags FirstIn 2009 this island dropped plastic bags entirely — before anywhere else in the country. Carry one to the pier and you will be asked to leave it behind.