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on the far eastern edge of town at 157 Nguyen Duy Hieu. Built in the late eighteenth century by Chinese from Chaozhou, or Trieu Chau, it’s renowned for its remarkable display of wood carving. In the altar niche sits the gilded Ong Bon, a general in the Chinese navy believed to hold sway over the wind and waves, surrounded by a frieze teeming with bird, animal and insect life so lifelike you can almost hear it buzz. The altar table itself depicts life on land and in the depths of the ocean, while panels on either side show two decorative ladies of the Chinese court modelling the latest Japanese hair fashions. On the way to Trieu Chau hall, you’ll pass Hai Nam Assembly Hall at 10 Tran Phu (7–11.30am & 2–5pm; not covered by ticket scheme, free), founded by the Chinese community from Hainan, or Hai Nam, and also noted for its ornately carved, gilded altar table. Its unusual history is intriguing – in 1851 a Vietnamese general plundered three merchant ships, killing 107 passengers, after which the vessels were painted black to imply they were pirate ships. A lone survivor revealed the crime to King Tu Duc, who promptly condemned the general to death and ordered that the booty be returned to the victims’ families. When the hall was built later in the century, it was dedicated to the unlucky passengers.

Just east of the Japanese Bridge you can’t miss the Cantonese Assembly Hall, its gaudy entrance arch a recent embellishment to the original late eighteenth-century hall built by immigrants from Guangdong. Though there’s nothing of particular merit here, it’s an appealing place, mostly because of its plant-filled courtyard, ornamented with dragon and carp carvings (see "Unravelling the architectural features of Hoi An"). Lastly, plum in the centre of town is the Chinese Assembly Hall, or Chua Ba (7–11.30am & 2–5pm; not covered by ticket scheme, free), built in 1740 as an umbrella organization for all Hoi An’s ethnic Chinese population. Thien Hau graces the altar but the hall is nowadays used mainly as a language school where local ethnic Chinese children and adults come to learn their mother tongue. The school was closed in 1975 and only permitted to re-open in 1990.

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

The merchants’ houses

The majority of Hoi An’s original wooden buildings are found along Tran Phu and south towards the river, which is where you’ll find the best-known merchant’s house, at 101 Nguyen Thai Hoc. The Tan Ky House is a beautifully preserved example of a two-storey, late eighteenth-century shophouse, amalgamating Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese influences in an architectural style typical of Hoi An. The present house was built by a second-generation member of the Tan Ky family, who fled China as political refugees in the late sixteenth century, and took eight years to complete. The long, narrow building has shop space at the front, a tiny central courtyard and direct access to the river at the back, from where merchandise would be hauled upstairs to storerooms safe above the floods. The house, wonderfully cluttered with the accumulated property of seven generations grown wealthy from trading silk, tea and rice, is constructed of dark hardwoods, including termite-resistant jackfruit for its main columns. The skill of local woodcarvers is evident throughout, but most stunning is the inlay work: look out for two hanging poem-boards on which mother-of-pearl brush-strokes form exquisitely delicate birds in flight. Guides, speaking French and English, are on hand to answer questions, but at times the house is completely overwhelmed with visitors – far better to come, if you can, at a quieter time (early or late in the day) to appreciate the weight of history here. Diagonally across the street, at 80 Nguyen Thai Hoc, poke your nose in at the house of Diep Dong Nguyen. Built at the end of the nineteenth century for a Chinese merchant, and later converted into a pharmacy, nowadays the glass medicine cases are stuffed full of dusty family heirlooms.

Just up from the covered bridge at 4 Nguyen Thi Minh