HOI AN was, around the XVth century, the hub of the maritime merchants proposing a great commercial activity, in particular the silk’s trade. The wealthy merchants settled there and had impressive wooden houses built... Most of them being of Chinese roots, the architecture found in HOI AN is frequently reminiscent of the ancient Chinese pagodas found in southern China... But also japanese inspiration...
The architectural beauty and its authenticity offer an attractive visit and since HOI AN welcomes a growing tourist interest, the village is becoming decorative: It is the village of a thousand lanterns. These silk lanterns are the emblem of HOI AN.
Despite the tourist affluence, the authenticity of this small village has not suffered, quite the contrary.
The villagers understood that the tourists came to feel the scent of the origins (it is the cradle of the current Vietnamese alphabet) and make sure to preserve it against all odds.
This village, after the departure of the Chinese merchants in the XIXth century (caused by of a massive sand cover the river), it was inexorably dying by the demographic hemorrhage. Today, from its ashes, the phoenix village revives and thrives, thanks to tourism well anchored.
Day and night, HOI AN has a unique charm with its yellow walls and turquoise shutters, sampans nocturnal fishermen adorned with their glittering lantern, its houses born from another age, his memories singing and dancing in the waves of the river.
Who says "merchant port" says "melting pot". Indeed, this cosmopolitan aspect is found in the architectural styles of HOI AN: Chinese, Japanese and French.
The famous Japanese bridge of HOI AN: This bridge is called "Lai Vien" which, literally translated as "the bridge of the friends from faraway".
Indeed, Chinatown and the Japanese Quarter were connected by this bridge with the intention of affirming the friendship between the two cultures.
It contains an altar in its heart to protect this covenant. At its extremities, four guards act as cerberers: A pair of monkeys and a pair of dogs, because it would have been built within three years, between the year of monkey (1593) and the year of the dog (1595).
This bridge, for its symbolic signification, is so important to Viet Nam that it is drawn on the 20.000 VND :
Enjoy a tofu cream (ta hu) on the port of HOI AN, let the evening breeze caress your skin, admire the sampans leaving for their nocturnal fishing, smell the incense carrying hopes and wishes to heaven... and time just stops in silent glance.
A suspended time, a silent time to appreciate the immemorial place ... that plunges you into another Age, a memory beyond lives.
Welcome to HOI AN and enjoy !
Let's share the fruit of our happiness...