The site was part of the Sa Huynh culture and then a port of the Champa kingdom from about the 2nd century AD, so its trading history is around 1,800 years old. The old town you walk through dates from the 15th to the 19th centuries, when Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese merchants built it.

Why is Hoi An a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

UNESCO inscribed the Ancient Town in 1999 as an exceptionally well-preserved South-East Asian trading port of the 15th to 19th centuries. The old town covers about 30 hectares with roughly 1,360 recorded monuments, including preserved merchant houses, assembly halls and the Japanese Bridge.

Why did Hoi An stop being a major port?

In the 19th century the trade moved north to Da Nang, whose deep-water harbour suited larger ships, and trade policy and river conditions went against Hoi An. The stagnation left the old town largely unchanged, which is the reason it is so complete today.

Who built the Japanese Covered Bridge?

Japanese merchants built the wooden bridge in the early 17th century, joining their quarter to the Chinese one. It is the best-known landmark in the old town and sits at its western end.

What was Hoi An called in the past?

The Cham port is recorded as Lam Ap Pho. European traders later knew the town as Faifo, a name that appears on old maps and in the logs of Portuguese, Dutch and other ships.

History of Hoi An Ancient Town: Champa Port to World Heritage

What is the history of Hoi An in brief?

Hoi An was a Cham trading port from about the 2nd century and a major international market from the 15th to the 19th century. Vietnamese settlers arrived in the late 15th century and Chinese and Japanese merchants in the 17th. The port declined in the 19th century as trade moved to Da Nang. UNESCO inscribed the preserved old town as a World Heritage Site on 12 December 1999.

Champa and the first port

The coast here belonged first to the Sa Huynh culture and then to the Kingdom of Champa, whose people were Hindu traders with their own language and temples. The Cham used the Thu Bon river and its mouth to bring goods from the highlands to ships in the South China Sea, and Hoi An was one of their key foreign trading ports. The kingdom’s religious centre was at My Son, inland up the same river system, which tells you why the port and the sanctuary belong to one story.

The Vietnamese state of Dai Viet took over Champa’s northern lands in stages and defeated the Cham capital in 1471. Vietnamese settlement of Hoi An followed in the late 15th century.

The merchant town, 15th to 18th centuries

Hoi An rose as an entrepot for silk, ceramics, spices and aromatic woods. Chinese merchants settled in numbers from the 17th century, and Japanese traders built their own quarter. The old town’s Japanese Covered Bridge dates from the early 17th century, and the Chinese community built five assembly halls, each tied to a home province. European ships also called, and the town appears in their records as Faifo.

The Japanese community left Hoi An in the 17th century when Japan closed its borders to overseas trade, but the Chinese merchants stayed and the market kept running. The shop-houses with narrow fronts and deep interiors that you see today come from this period.

Decline and survival

In the 19th century Da Nang developed as the region’s main port, and Hoi An’s trade dwindled. The shift suited the town in one way: new building passed it by. The Vietnam War also left the old town largely undamaged, so the street pattern, timber houses and temples stayed intact while many other historic towns changed.

Recognition and tourism

UNESCO recognised the Ancient Town in 1999, citing an exceptionally well-preserved trading port. The old town covers about 30 hectares and counts roughly 1,360 recorded monuments, including preserved private houses. The listing brought tourism, and with it the tailors, restaurants and lantern shops. Hoi An was a district-level city in Quang Nam province until the July 2025 reorganisation; it is now part of Da Nang city.

For practical planning, see our Hoi An page. The nearby city of Da Nang is the airport and the old rival port, and the Cham story continues at My Son, 40 km away.

Reading the old town

If you walk the old town with this history in mind, look for the Japanese bridge, the assembly halls with their carved timber, and the merchant houses with their deep courtyards. Each shows a different group of traders who made the town.

The History of Hoi An's Ancient Town