View allAll Photos Tagged hoi
Hoi An Ancient town is located in Viet Nam’s central Quang Nam Province, on the north bank near the mouth of the Thu Bon River.
It is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a small-scale trading port active the 15th to 19th centuries which traded widely, both with the countries of Southeast and East Asia and with the rest of the world. Its decline in the later 19th century ensured that it has retained its traditional urban tissue to a remarkable degree.
The town reflects a fusion of indigenous and foreign cultures (principally Chinese and Japanese with later European influences) that combined to produce this unique survival.
Source: whc.unesco.org
Hoi An - Vietnam
All rights reserved - Copyright © Joerg Reichel
All images are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without expressed, written permission of the photographer.
Hoi An was an important trade center in the 16th and 17th century, when traders from China, India, Japan and The Netherlands visited this town. There was a Chinese and a Japanese settlement in these days (the Japanese dissappeared when the "sakoku" started, the closing of Japan from the outside world by the Shoguns).
The Chinese called it Hai Pho, during the French occupation it was called Faifo.
Not unlike Bruges (Brugge), the charm of the town survived thanks to a slow disaster for the citizens: the river that links Hoi An to the see silted up in the late 19th century and became too shallow to navigate. Danang took over the role of main port, and Hoi An stayed the way it was a 100 years ago.
In 1999, it was appointed a Unesco World heritage site. Ironically, the town has changed more since then, than in the many years before: now new hotels are being built, and tourists are flogging the streets, buying souvenirs and tailored suits or slik dresses.
But it's still definitely worth a visit!