INGENIEUR
Houses of French influenced architecture at the river front
A typical street of Hoi An
River front
Interior courtyard typical of old
houses with two air wells and
three segments of building.
Street hawker, a common sight
in ancient Hoi An
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VOL
- MARCH 2016
VOL65
55JANUARY
JUNE 2013
Going back to histor y,
the ancient town was once
the largest harbour port in
Southeast Asia in its early days
where spices and silk were
actively traded. The former
harbour town of the Cham at
the estuary of the Thu Bon River
was an important Vietnamese
trading centre in the 16th and
17th centuries, where Chinese
from various provinces as
well as Japanese, Dutch and
Indians settled. During this
period of China trade, the town
was divided with the Japanese
settlement across the 16 th
century Japanese Bridge.
Hoi An’s prominence was
eroded when the French were
given the exclusive rights to
trade in the nearby port town
of Danang. Danang became
the new centre of trade under
the French influence in central
Vietnam while Hoi An became a
forgotten backwater town. It was
also partly due to the river mouth
silting up making it difficult for
bigger vessels to berth., Hoi
An was half abandoned and
remained untouched over the
next 200 years.
Today, the town is a tourist
attraction because of its
history, traditional architecture
and crafts such as textiles
and ceramics. Many bars,
hotels, and resorts have been
constructed both in Hoi An and
the surrounding area. The port
and boats are still used for
fishing and tourism..
In 1999, the old town was
declared a World Heritage site
by UNESCO recognizing it as
a well-preserved example of a
Southeast Asian trading port of
the 15th to 19th centuries, with
buildings that display a unique