02.2025 Story
Like a dream, Hoi An travels through four hundred years of prosperity
Far Eastern International Bank / Xie Mingrong



Vietnam has become a rising star in investment and tourism in Southeast Asia in recent years, with a prosperous scene of large-scale construction projects appearing in various places. From Taipei to Danang, located in China and Vietnam, there is a direct flight along the coastline surrounded by iron walls and dense cranes. It can be imagined that in the near future, this place will become a highly commercialized metropolis and an important international trade city in central Vietnam.
However, a hundred years ago, the international trade capital of China and Vietnam was located in Hoi An at the mouth of the Chumphon River. This Han Vietnamese term for "peaceful and secure meeting place" was an important trading port in Southeast Asia from the 16th to the 19th century, gathering immigrants and wealthy merchants from China, Japan, the Netherlands, and India, creating a multi-ethnic cultural integration and centuries of prosperity. It was not until the Chumphon River silted up and ships could no longer bring the impact of the New World that the status of the trading port was gradually transferred to Da Nang.
The bustling city of Hoi An, quietly lingering in the early 20th century, has also benefited from adversity and preserved its excellent architectural culture. It was listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1999. To this day, the bustling commercial port is no longer there, but Hoi An has become a well-known ancient town with a constant stream of tourists.

I deliberately chose a restaurant next to the ancient town. Crossing the intersection, you can enter the ancient town of Hui'an. The restaurant is located on the banks of the Qiupen River, and even has its own exclusive dock. The entrance is lush with flowers and trees, and the blooming nine layered kudzu vines are attached to both sides of the entrance. There is a pocket courtyard with direct sunlight, which shows the age of the building, but it has a tranquil charm after the sedimentation of time. It is very suitable for completely empty small trips.
Most tourists are loaded onto buses during the day and flock into the narrow alleys of Hoi An, paying respects and scanning for souvenirs, taking photos at various historical sites and online beauty stores, quickly consuming the city, and then retreating before nightfall. Unfortunately, they missed the most beautiful moments in Hoi An: morning and dusk.
For me, the ancient city where the morning mist has not yet receded is the most beautiful. The Nine Heavens and the Cannon Flower are the most beautiful flower waterfalls in Hoi An City. The orange and red blossoms bloom in the morning light, and the entire ancient city seems to be hangover rising. Only the river water ripples, and the sound of the water tide gently caressing the shore can be faintly heard. Local people enjoy Vietnamese breakfast outside the noodle shop and under the big tree. Only at this moment, this is the Hoi An of the Vietnamese people.
After nightfall, Hoi An has a different look. Along the riverbank, lanterns light up and reflect on the surface of the autumn basin, rippling into magnificent colors. The sound of water is gentle and charming, creating a unique charm. The winding narrow alleys are adorned with colorful lights, and the unique and magnificent lanterns of Hoi An adorn the night sky like a hundred years of prosperity. Strolling under dim yellow lights, I really feel like what kind of evening it is today.

Strolling through the ancient city of Hoi An, in a trance, there is a feeling of going back to the 1960s. The wooden spires, brick walls, dark brown door and window frames matched with goose yellow walls, and shops hanging slender lanterns resemble the water towns of Jiangnan in China.
Indeed, immigrants from Fujian rebuilt their homes and beliefs here, walking into the deep courtyards of Hui'an. The quaint wooden beams, narrow staircases, courtyards in the inner courtyard, and even the God Hall all have a similar feeling to the past. I can imagine the immigrants who came across the sea in the late Ming Dynasty, trying to replicate every brick and tile of their homeland in this foreign land.
In addition to the local customs and traditions brought by the Han people, Hoi An was also a gathering place for Japanese merchants. The most famous landmark in the city is the Nihon Bridge, also known as the Laiyuan Bridge. It was built by the Japanese in 1953 to separate Chinatown from Nihon City. It is said that construction began in the Year of the Monkey and was completed in the Year of the Dog, so there are stone monkeys and stone dogs guarding both sides of the bridge. There is also a small temple dedicated to the deity Xuantian, which blesses local residents to enter and exit safely.
In addition, Hoi An is also the setting of the opera "Princess Anio", which tells the true cross-border love story between Nguyen Thi Ngoc, the adopted daughter of King Quang Nam of Vietnam, and Japanese businessman Muntaro Araki. This has become a symbol of friendship between Japan and Vietnam, and every specific festival, Hoi An and the couple hold related commemorative activities in Nagasaki, where they have lived for a long time in Japan.
Coffee shops, Vietnamese sandwiches, and beaches
 The best way to pass the time in a small town is to find a coffee shop and give yourself some free time to savor Vietnamese coffee and Vietnamese time. Vietnamese coffee beans are relatively bitter, so they are usually flavored with sweet condensed milk, coconut milk, yogurt, ice cream, and even eggs. I personally think that the taste of each coffee shop is not much different, so the decoration and atmosphere of the coffee shop are particularly important. In the daytime of Southeast Asia, it is necessary to find a quiet and cool coffee shop with strong shade and fragrant flowers to escape the heat and truly enjoy the charm of slow life in the ancient city.
The Vietnamese sandwich is also called the Vietnamese bread, which is called "Banh Mi" in Vietnam. It is a special food of French Vietnamese mixed blood. It looks like the French baguette. However, because of the addition of Rice noodles, it tastes soft, which is different from the crispness of baguette. The bread is filled with filling and special sauce, including Vietnamese pork sausage, braised pork, cucumber, coriander, shredded carrots, and white radish. It is then topped with meat sauce and mayonnaise, making it a rich and flavorful dish known as a Vietnamese folk delicacy.
There is a Vietnamese bread specialty store called "Banh Mi Phuong Hoi An" in Hoi An. With the endorsement of American food star Anthony Bourdain, it sells from 6:30 am to 9:30 pm, and the waiting line always stretches for several meters. Fortunately, the staff is very fast, grabbing vegetables, meat, dipping sauce, and packaging in one go. In the sincere sandwich, cucumber, coriander, liver sauce, and minced meat overflow, and the aroma of meat juice is overwhelming. After eating one, the feeling of fullness can last for about a whole day.
In addition, on a hot afternoon, the best pastime is to find a high-quality Vietnamese massage to relax both body and mind. The travel website suggested a rice paddy aromatherapy SPA located in the suburbs. As I got off the taxi, I walked through the Vanilla Garden and arrived at the reception hall, where all the female staff were confident, elegant, gentle, and delicate, with a Vietnamese woman's gentle exterior but firm interior. Under her guidance, I first visited the surrounding gardens, where it turned out that some of the herbs used by the shop were from their own grown herbs. When a gentle breeze blows, a faint scent of vanilla permeates the air, which is very healing.
The aromatherapy room is a simple and simple wooden hut, with lush green rice fields outside. The therapist opens the back door facing the rice fields and can see the rolling rice waves in the wind, swaying in a regular pattern. I closed my eyes and felt the warm hands pushing back and forth on my back, mixed with the fragrance of cedar, sage, and mint, slowly entering a dreamland, as if on the autumn basin river shrouded in twinkling lights, I returned to the glorious era of Hoi An with the swaying boat
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