Old Town’s 22 Historical Sites in Hoi An – A Complete List
Some of my absolute favorite locations around the globe are the places where entire cities have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites. These are places out of time, where the pace of life slows down, the buildings are beautiful, instead of the concrete boxes you see in so many places, and everything just feels nice.
Hoi An is exactly such a spot. Old Town in particular is filled with beautiful old houses, Chinese assembly halls, places of worship, and numerous museums where visitors can learn all about the history that has made this area so unique. And all you need to check them out is a handful of tickets.
Visiting Hoi An’s Old Town
Hoi An’s Old Town officially has 22 different heritage sites that you can visit, with each one requiring a single ticket per adult to enter. However, the relative quality of those sites can vary quite a bit, and some sites are way more popular than others. The result is that while I was doing research for my family’s trip to Hoi An, I wasn’t able to find a single webpage that had all 22 sites listed!
However, when we bought our pack of tickets to start our own sight-seeing, we were given a paper map that had all of them listed, plus a handful of Intangible Cultural Experiences to check out!
I don’t know why no one has listed these all out before, but I figured it was time.
Where can I buy Tickets to Hoi An’s Historical Sites?
There are 11 different official locations where you can buy tickets for the different sites, but they aren’t particularly well marked on Google Maps. I’ve done my best to mark the general areas where they’re located on the map in this article, but, in general, they are located all along the border between Old Town and the more modern areas in Hoi An.
Each ticket book has 5 tickets than can be used for the different locations and demonstrations on this list, and each booklet costs 4.7 USD. However, kids are free!
My wife and I each bought a ticket booklet, but there were several places that didn’t ask us for one. (Especially the museums.) At those places we bought a few small items from the gift shops, instead.
Which 5 Hoi An Heritage Sites should I use my tickets on?
Here’s the thing. Which sites you should visit really depends a lot on what sorts of experiences you’re looking for! If you’re interested in seeing the places where people lived their day to day lives, you should check out the Old Houses. If you’re more interested in Chinese architecture or beautiful courtyards, I’d lean into the Assembly houses. And if you want more in depth information on what things were like 100-200 years ago, the Museums are your best bet.
But here are the 5 that I would choose, if I had it all to do over again.
- The Fujian Assembly Hall
- The Minh Huong Communal House
- The Old House of Tan Ky
- The Japanese Bridge
- The Museum of Folk Culture
I’m not saying that this is the right choice. But these are the sites that I feel like I learned the most from, and each of them are interesting in their own way.
Now for the big list!
22+ Cultural Heritage Sites in Hoi An
The 5 Chinese Assembly Halls
- Fujian Assembly Hall (Phúc Kiến)
- Chinese “Five Congregations” Assembly Hall (Trung Hoa Hall)
- Hainan Assembly Hall (Hai Nam Hall)
- Cantonese Assembly Hall (Quang Triêu Hall)
- Trieu Chau Assembly Hall (Chaozhou Hall)
Hoi An’s position as a regional trade port meant that sailors and merchants from around the known world would regularly stop in to visit. However, of all the different traders who would come, the vast majority of international visitors were from China.
In fact, so many Chinese visited Hoi An on such a regular basis that these Chinese merchants decided to build assembly halls where they could gather with other Chinese travelers from their own culture. These halls were places where Chinese sailors and settlers could meet with each other, celebrate important events together, and worship together.
Today, these six assembly halls remain some of the most fascinating and elaborate buildings in Hoi An! And, even if you don’t choose to visit them all, it is definitely worth adding one or two to your list.
1. Fujian Assembly Hall (Phúc Kiến)
Originally built in the 1690s, the Fujian Assembly Hall, or Hội quán Phúc Kiến, is the largest and oldest of the Chinese assembly halls in Hoi An. It was built as a place where the Fujian Chinese could worship the Chinese sea goddess, Matsu, who was said protect to her worshippers at sea.
It is an ornate building, and is especially noted for its intricate tilework and beautiful courtyards.
As the first example of an Assembly Hall in Hoi An, this one should definitely be on your list of places to visit!
2. Chinese “Five Congregations” Assembly Hall (Trung Hoa Hall)
Noted mostly for its royal blue coloration, the Five Congregations Hall was built as a gathering place for any Chinese person in Hoi An, regardless of where they came from in China. This was especially important early on in Hoi An’s history, since many of the Chinese immigrant groups living there either didn’t have enough other people from their region or enough funds to build their own assembly hall.
Trung Hoa Assembly Hall ended up becoming a sort of “catch-all” hall where Chinese from all over could come to celebrate the parts of their heritage that they did share, even if there were still differences between them.
This is the second-oldest of Hoi An’s assembly halls, and dates back the early 1740s.
3. Hainan Assembly Hall (Hai Nam Hall)
As you can probably tell from the name, the Hainan Assembly Hall was built by Chinese who came from the Hainan region in China as a place where they could gather. Interestingly, though, it was also built as a tribute to 108 merchants who were killed at sea.
Apparently, these sailors were mistaken for pirates and fired upon, sinking their ship! An investigation into the matter revealed that these 108 Hainanese sailors were, in fact, not pirates, and the emperor gave permission to the local Hainanese Chinese in Hoi An to build the assembly hall in their honor in 1875.
4. Cantonese Assembly Hall (Quang Triêu Hall)
The Quang Triêu hall was constructed in the shape of the Chinese symbol for the word “nation” (囯) using wood and cut stone. The structure of the building, from the gate, to the courtyard, to the temple, is intricately carved with mythical creatures, from phoenixes, to unicorns, to the ever-present dragons. And the main courtyard has a beautiful statue depicting a dragon.
5. Trieu Chau Assembly Hall (Chaozhou Hall)
This is one of the less popular assembly halls for tourists to visit, but even so, it is a beautiful example of Chinese architecture in Hoi An.
The Chaozhou assembly hall was built in 1845 for the Teochew Chinese immigrants, who were once the second-largest group of Chinese in Vietnam. (After the Cantonese.) Their hall is built with a front courtyard leading into a front hall, an east and west wing, and a second courtyard that leads into a main hall.
Since this assembly hall is less frequently visited by tourists, the entire place has a very peaceful feel.
The 3 Vietnamese Communal Houses
- Minh Huong Communal House
- Cẩm Phô Communal House / Cẩm Phô Temple
- Ông Voi Communal House (Hoi An Communal House)
The Vietnamese Communal Houses in Hoi An served basically the same purpose as the Chinese Assembly Halls, but for groups of people who aren’t Chinese. Most Vietnamese villages would have a communal house where the people of the village could come together to worship, hold village meetings, or celebrate special occasions.
The Communal houses listed here are the ones that you can find on the official Hoi An landmarks map that visitors are given when they buy their tickets, but there are actually 23 different communal houses in Hoi An, each serving one of the area’s smaller communities.
6. Minh Huong Communal House
The Minh Huong Communal house in Hoi An is an especially interesting example of a communal house because while it serves the Minh Huong village in Hoi An, the Minh Huong people who lived there are technically of Chinese descent.
Their people were supporters of the Ming Dynasty in China who fled their homeland when that dynasty fell in 1644. Essentially refugees, many of these Ming supporters chose to settle in surrounding countries, including Vietnam. Over time, the Minh Huong became more and more separated from the other Chinese, and eventually became Vietnamese themselves.
However, their communal house reflects their Chinese heritage, and shares a lot of design elements in common with the Chinese Assembly Halls, including the way the entire structure in laid out.
7. Cẩm Phô Communal House
The Cẩm Phô Communal House is the oldest surviving communal house in the Hoi An area. Though it’s not clear when the Communal house itself was constructed, the Cẩm Phô village dates back to the 15th century, and has undergone at least 2 known renovations, in 1817 and in 1897.
8. Ông Voi Communal House (Hoi An Communal House)
The Hoi An village community has been around for centuries, with the earliest known mention of Hoi An dating back to a stele dating back to 1640. During this time span, it’s safe to assume that Hoi An communal house has gone through several iterations, and, in fact, the current location of the communal house is not the original location.
Rather, the communal house location was moved to its present spot in Hoi An in the early 1900’s when the land it originally occupied was taken as part of a roads expansion project. Since then, it has gone through several different stages of renovations, including a period of time where the structure was used as a kindergarten.
The name, Ông Voi, means elephant, and is a reference to a pair of elephant statues in the main courtyard.
The 6 Old Houses of Hoi An
- Old House of Tan Ky
- Old House of Phung Hung
- Quan Thang Ancient House
- Duc An House
- Tran Family Chapel
- Nguyen Tuong Family Chapel
One of the most remarkable things about Hoi An as a whole is how little the area has changed over the last few hundred years. Part of that is because when the French colonized Vietnam, they chose to create their own port of trade in Da Nang, to the north. That decision led to Da Nang being the area that was developed during the area’s industrial era, while Hoi An remained stayed the same.
But another part of it is that the original building designs in Hoi An were well-suited to their purpose. Waterfront warehouses had river docks for unloading goods directly into the back of their buildings, while the fronts of those same buildings hosted store fronts for selling the goods. It was a simple design that made the most of the available riverfront space, so there was little need to update the buildings over time.
Houses further away from the water often blended the different building styles from the different cultures that converged in the Hoi An area. Classic Vietnamese buildings with Japanese or Chinese elements were common sights.
Today, many of these older homes and buildings are still being used for their original purpose, with some families living in the same house for over 100 years!
9. The Old House of Tan Ky
Of the all the different old houses you can visit in Hoi An, the house of Tan Ky is one of the most visited. It is a beautiful two-story wooden house with stone floors built adjacent to the river. It was originally built as a trading post, where agricultural goods could be unloaded on the river side and sold in the front, but that proximity to the river came at the cost of frequent floods. The flood levels from these floods have been marked against one of the walls in the house so visitors can see where the waters were.
Today, the House of Tan Ky is filled with artifacts from the family’s past, and walking through the house feels similar to visiting a small museum.
It’s also worth noting that this was the first of the Old Houses to be appointed as a “cultural work” way back in 1985!
10. The Old House of Phung Hung
The house of Phung Hung is one of the oldest houses in Hoi An, and has been standing for almost 250 years, at this point. And for the entirety of that time, it has stayed in the hands of just a single family, with the current owner being a direct descendant of the merchant who originally built the house 8 generations ago!
Today, the first floor area of the house which was once a market is instead filled with artifacts from the life of the house’s original owner, and visitors are encouraged to take their time looking through them. Likewise, the second floor of the house is open to visitors, though instead of a museum, this floor is home to a ancestral shrine.
11. The Quan Thang Ancient House
Quan ThangHouse is named for its original owner, a Chinese merchant and ship captain named Quan Thang. Here, once again, we see a sturdy wooden home that was built both as a place to live and as a place of business.
Unlike the last two houses, Quan Thang is a single-story home, with separate spaces for conducting business and for housing. Each space remains filled with artifacts from a time gone by, and the very walls of the home are decorated with carvings from Hoi An’s past.
12. The Duc An House
Similar to the other ancient houses in Hoi An, Duc An house has had a long history and has sustained its family for generations. However, this house, more than others, has also had an impact on Vietnam as a whole.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Duc An house was made into a bookstore with offerings that attracted a host of prominent figures from Vietnam’s past. And in fact, the ideas that were discussed here gave rise to the Hoi An Revolutionary Youth Association, which went on to play a part in the revolution against French Colonial rule in Vietnam.
13. The Tran Family Chapel
Family shrines and chapels are common feature in many Asian homes, but few family chapels are as ornate or as ancient as the Tran Family Chapel in Hoi An.
Built in the early 1800s by Tran Tu Nhac, this has served as a place for the Tran family to honor their ancestors for 200 years! It is built with the same blend of Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese architectural styles as other locations in Hoi An, and has several historical displays to check out.
14. The Nguyen Tuong Family Chapel
Dating back to 1806, the Nguyen Tuong Family chapel was built in the residence of Nguyen Tuong Van, who was later promoted to the post of National Defense Minister in the year 1820. The chapel is of a simpler design than many of the other old houses in town, but belongs to a family that has had several important members over the years, including 3 different famous Vietnamese authors.
Books and artifacts belonging to the Nguyen Tuong family are on display, here, as well.
The 3 Other Historical Sites of Hoi An
While the vast majority of historical sites in Hoi An are split between the old houses and community gathering spots, there are at least a few different spots in the area that don’t quite fall into those categories.
15. Chùa Cầu (The Japanese Bridge)
During the 1500’s, Hoi An was already considered one of the best international shipping ports in all of Asia, and traders from as far away as England were known to have visited. However, it was much more common for traders from countries closer to hand to visit, and by the 1600s, both the Chinese and the Japanese had enclaves in Hoi An where their traders and settlers lived.
The Japanese Bridge in Hoi An is one of the oldest individual pieces of architecture in Hoi An today, and it dates all the way back to 1593 when it was built as a way to cross one of the neighborhood canals between the Japanese and Chinese enclaves. At first, it was just a bridge, though a beautiful one. However, in 1653, a small temple was built atop the bridge. According to legend, the temple was built as a way of appeasing Namazu, which was a giant catfish monster capable of causing earthquakes.
As one of the oldest sites in Hoi An, it’s not surprising that the bridge has gone through several rounds of renovations over the years, however, one of those rounds is happening right now, so, I unfortunately have not been able to see the bridge in all its glory. Maybe next time.
16. Quan Cong Temple and 17. Quan Am Pagoda
While these are technically listed as being separate spots on the official map, the Pagoda and the Temple are actually connected together and can be visited using a single one of your tickets.
Quan Cong Temple is another of the oldest buildings in Hoi An, dating all the way back to 1653 when it was established by a group of Chinese immigrants who devoted it to the general Quan Cong.
The Chinese architecture of the temple is older than much of the other Chinese architecture in town, with the curved roof edges and enamel roofing tiles associated with Confucian-era architecture. I especially loved the dragon carvings along the top of the roof!
Inside the temple, there is a shrine dedicated to Quan Cong (Guan Yu), who is considered to be a fierce god of war, while the conjoined Quan Cong Pagoda has a small art gallery.
The 5 Hoi An Museums
- Hoi An Museum
- Museum of Folk Culture
- Museum of Trade Ceramics
- Museum of Sa Huynh Culture
- Museum of Traditional Medicine
Hoi An’s old town area is also home to several small museums, each dedicated to a different part of the site’s history and culture. Each museum is housed in one of the old houses that make up Hoi An, and they host a wide variety of artifacts with plaques explaining their importance.
On my Field Trip Categories page, I typically consider museums to be a different category of educational trip than field trips, since museum experiences tend to be recreations of first hand experiences rather than letting kids see and experience locations for themselves. But, I still really enjoyed the museums that I visited in Hoi An, and I especially loved that most of them are located right there on site in the place they’re describing!
18. Hoi An Museum
The Hoi An Museum is the largest and the most generalized museum in Hoi An. It contains everything from information on Hoi An’s local culture and history, to exhibits on the Vietnam (American) War.
This is a great place to visit if you’re wanting more general information about Hoi An as a whole, rather than specific information about individual buildings or topics.
19. Museum of Folk Culture
The Museum of Folk Culture is located right along the river, not far from Hoi An’s market area.
I highly recommend checking out the upper floors of the museum, as there are several different exhibits inside that explain everything from agricultural tools that were used in the area, to fishing techniques, to descriptions of the unicorn dance, including a display of the dance’s traditional costume.
Afterwards, be sure to check out the lower levels for a look at silk worm cocoons, and a tea tasting!
20. Museum of Trade Ceramics
The Museum of Trade Ceramics is smaller than the previous two, with only a handful of exhibits focused on some of the different ceramics pieces found in and around archeological sites in Hoi An.
For instance, there were ceramics found in a shipwreck off the coast of Vietnam, ceramics found at Cham archeological site, and ceramics found under one of the Assembly houses in town.
However, there weren’t any displays on how the pottery was made or describing what made the different pieces special, which I felt like could really add to the experience.
21. Museum of Sa Huynh Culture
While most of the historical sites and exhibits in Hoi An are focused on the (relatively) recent history of the town’s last 100-300 years, the Museum of Sa Huynh Culture focuses on the earliest history of the area, as far back as 3000 years ago.
The Sa Huynh are considered to be the original settlers of this area, and this museum focuses specifically on them and their culture, long before Hoi An became important on the international scene.
22. Museum of Traditional Medicine
The Museum of Traditional Medicine is one of the newest museums on the official list, and has only been open since 2019.
The Museum has a few exhibits on the history of traditional medicine in Vietnam, including exhibits with different herbs and remedies. However, it’s a bit on the small side.
If you’re looking to get away from the crowds for a few minutes, or if you’re a completionist, it can be worth a look, but otherwise there are better choices.
BONUS: 4 Intangible Cultural Heritage Sites
- Bài Chòi Hội An
- Black Sesame Soup Demonstration
- Hoi An Traditional Performance Theater
- Smashing Pot Game
Alongside the different buildings and museums that you can visit are a few different locations where you can actively participate in traditional activities that are a part of Hoi An cultural history!
Bài Chòi Hội An
Starts at 7:00 pm (I had to remind them that it was time to start. But once it began, it was a lot of fun! )
Bài Chòi is basically a Vietnamese version of Bingo, with elements of performance theater thrown in.
Each participant buys a paddle with 3 symbols on it and takes a seat. When the show starts, the performers begin pulling sticks from a jar that have symbols on them that may or may not match the symbols on your paddle, and they sing a song that includes the name of the symbol tacked on the end.
If the symbol that they sing about is on your paddle, you lift it in the air and receive a flag. If you get a flag for all 3 of the symbols on your paddle, you win!
My family played 2 times, and my daughter won a beautiful commemorative lantern.
Black Sesame Soup Demonstration
Black Sesame Soup is a sweet soup made from ground black sesame seeds, and it has been made by the family who owns this shop for nearly 100 years! (The owner of the shop is over 100 years old and has been making the soup since they were young.)
Today, you can come watch the process of how this sweet soup is made, and buy some to try for around 10,000 VND!
Hoi An Traditional Performance Theater
The Hoi An Traditional Performance Theater is located right along the river near the Museum of Folk Culture. If you happen to be in the area when they are open for a show, it is well worth using one of your tickets to watch.
The traditional performances could be anything from singing and dancing, to a game ofBài Chòi, but whatever it is, it will be fun!
(Bonus: the theater is an air-conditioned space, which is lovely on a hot afternoon.)
Smashing Pot Game
No one is exactly sure when the smashing pot game began, or where it came from, but it has been a regular occurrence in Hoi An for years at this point.
At its core, the game is a bit like breaking a piñata. A pot is hung from a rope that can be moved up and down, and the participant is given a mask to cover their eyes and a stick that they can use to smash the pot. And then they get set loose!
It’s all in good fun, and definitely worth a look!
