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of Tran Phu is marked by a small arched bridge of red-painted wood, popularly known as the Japanese Covered Bridge, which has been adopted as Hoi An’s emblem. It was known to exist in the mid-sixteenth century, and has subsequently been reconstructed several times to the same simple design. According to local folklore, the bridge was erected after Japan suffered a series of violent earthquakes which geomancers attributed to a restless monster lying with its head in India, tail in Japan and heart in Hoi An. The only remedy was to build a bridge whose stone piles would drive a metaphorical sword through the beast’s heart and fortuitously provide a handy passage across the muddy creek. Inside the bridge’s narrow span are a collection of stelae and four statues, two dogs and two monkeys, which suggest that work began in the year of the monkey and ended in that of the dog. The small temple suspended above the water is a later addition dedicated to the Taoist god Tran Vo Bac De (“Emperor of the North”), a favourite of sailors as he controls wind, rain and other “evil influences”.

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The central provinces | Hoi An and around | The Town | Japanese Covered Bridge |

Visiting Hoi An’s sights

Hoi An has a ticket scheme covering the majority of its most famous sights, the proceeds of which contribute to the preservation of the old centre. A ticket costing 75,000đ (valid for one day), allows access to five places: either the temple on the Japanese Covered Bridge or Chua Ong; one of the museums (the Museum of History and Culture, the Museum of Trade Ceramics or the Museum of Sa Huynh Culture); one of the participating Chinese Assembly Halls (the Phuoc Kien, Trieu Chau or Cantonese halls); one of the participating merchants’ houses or family chapels (the houses of Tan Ky, Phung Hung and Quan Thang or the Tran Family Chapel); and the Hoi An Handicraft Workshop at 9 Nguyen Thai Hoc. If you want to visit more sights in the scheme, you have to fork out for another ticket.

Tickets are on sale at six outlets: 52 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, 19 Ha Ba Trung, 5 Hoang Dieu, 12 Phan Chu Trinh, 37 Tran Phu and 78 Le Loi (see map "Hoi An"). Groups of more than eight people are entitled to a free guide for the day; otherwise, you can hire one for around $15. The ticket outlets are open from 7am to 6pm, as are all the sights included in the scheme.

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The central provinces | Hoi An and around | The Town |

The Chinese Assembly Halls

Historically, Hoi An’s ethnic Chinese population organized themselves according to their place of origin (Fujian, Guangdong, Chaozhou or Hainan). Each group maintained its own assembly hall as both community centre and house of worship, while a fifth hall also provided assistance to all the local groups and to visiting Chinese merchants. The most populous group hailed from Fujian, or Phuoc Kien, and their Phuoc Kien Assembly Hall, at 46 Tran Phu, is a suitably imposing edifice with an ostentatious, triple-arched gateway added in the early 1970s. The hall started life as a pagoda built in the late seventeenth century when, so it’s said, a Buddhist statue containing a lump of gold washed up on the riverbank. Almost a century later, the Chinese took over the decaying structure and rededicated it as a temple to Thien Hau, Goddess of the Sea and protector of sailors. She stands, fashioned in 200-year-old papier-mâché, on the principal altar flanked by her two assistants, green-faced Thien Ly Nhan and red-faced Thuan Phong Nhi, who between them can see or hear any boat in distress over a range of a thousand miles. A second sanctuary room behind and to the right of the main altar shelters a deity favoured by couples and pregnant women: the awesome Van Thien and her aides, the “twelve heavenly midwives”, who decide the fundamentals of a child’s life from conception onwards, including the fateful matter of gender. On the way out of the main building, take a look at the entrance porch decorated with colourful wooden friezes and delicate stone motifs.

It’s worth strolling out to the Trieu Chau Assembly Hall,