Why has Hoi An remained intact, while other trading ports have not

From the 16th to the 18th century, Hoi An was one of the busiest trading ports in Southeast Asia. Merchant ships from Japan, China, Portugal, and the Netherlands all called there. Westerners called this place Faifo.

Japanese and Chinese merchants didn't just stop by and leave — they stayed, built their own quarters, married Vietnamese women, built houses, and built assembly halls. The Japanese Covered Bridge is the clearest trace of the Japanese community: a covered bridge spanning a small stream, dating from around the early 17th century.

Then the port declined. The Thu Bon River gradually silted up, and large ships could no longer enter. By the 19th century, the seaport's role had shifted entirely to Da Nang — where the bay was deeper and more sheltered from the wind. Hoi An lost its position and returned to being a small town by the river.

And that is exactly what saved it.

Other trading ports in the region kept developing, so they were constantly torn down and rebuilt — old houses gave way to new ones, and narrow streets widened into big roads. Hoi An had no money and no reason to do otherwise. People simply continued living in the old houses, patching the leaks, replacing the rotted posts, repainting the lime, generation after generation.

So when researchers came looking at the end of the 20th century, what they found was not a neighborhood that had been preserved, but a neighborhood that had never stopped being lived in. Many of the houses were still inhabited by the very same families who had built them, passed down through seven or eight generations.

That is the biggest difference between Hoi An and many other heritage sites: it is not a museum. Behind the wooden doors of the houses open to visitors is the real living space of a real family.

UNESCO recognized Hoi An as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1999.

If you go: the old town bans motorbikes during many time slots, so just walk. It's most crowded in the evening, especially during the full moon festival when the streets turn off the electric lights and only lanterns are lit. If you want to see Hoi An quieter, go early in the morning, when people are still sweeping their yards and setting up their stalls.

And one small thing: this is where people actually live. Before you point your camera into someone's home, ask first. Almost every time you'll get a nod — but it's still better to ask.