HOI AN TOWN

Hội An is a small city on the coast of the South China Sea in the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is located in the Quảng Nam province and is home to approximately 88,000 inhabitants.

The city possessed the largest harbour in Southeast Asia in the 1st Century and was known as Lâm Ấp Phố (Champa City).

The former harbour town of the Champa people 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 down. During this period of the China trade, the town was called Hai Pho (Seaside Town) in Vietnamese. Originally Hai Pho was a divided town, because across the "Japanese Bridge", it used to be the Japanese settlement (16th-17th century). The bridge (Chùa cầu) is a unique covered structure built by the Japanese, the only known covered bridge with a Buddhist pagoda attached to one side.