Hoi An
Encyclopedia
Hội An or rarely Faifo, is a city of Vietnam
, on the coast of the South China Sea
in the South Central Coast
of Vietnam
. It is located in Quang Nam province
and is home to approximately 120,000 inhabitants. It is recognized as a World Heritage Site
by UNESCO
.
The city possessed the largest harbour in Southeast Asia in the 1st century and was known as Lâm Ấp Phố (Champa City). Between the seventh and 10th centuries, the Cham (people of Champa
) controlled the strategic spice trade
and with this came tremendous wealth. The boats still used today in Hoi An probably have the same hull shape as those used by the Champas for ocean voyages.
The former harbour town of the Cham at the estuary
of the Thu Bồn River
was an important Vietnamese trading centre in the 16th and 17th centuries, where Chinese
from various provinces as well as Japan
ese, Dutch
and India
ns settled. During this period of the China trade, the town was called Hai Pho (Seaside Town) in Vietnamese. Originally, Hai Pho was a divided town with the Japanese settlement across the "Japanese Bridge" (16th-17th century). The bridge (Chùa cầu) is a unique covered structure built by the Japanese, the only known covered bridge with a Buddhist
pagoda
attached to one side.
and Spanish
as “Faifo,” and by similar names in Portuguese
and Dutch
. A number of theories have been put forth as to the origin of this name. Some scholars have suggested that it comes from the word "hải-phố" (海浦) meaning "sea town", while others have said that it is more likely simply a shortening of Hội An-phố (會安浦), "the town of Hội An", to "Hoi-pho" which became "Faifo".
which stretched from Huế
to beyond Nha Trang
. In the early years, Mỹ Sơn was the spiritual capital, Trà Kiệu was the political capital and Hội An was the commercial capital of the Champa Empire - later, by the 14th century, the Cham moved further down towards Nha Trang. The river system was the transportation for goods between the highlands, inland countries of Laos
and Thailand
and the low lands.
In 1535 Portuguese explorer and sea captain António de Faria, coming from Da Nang
tried to establish a major trading center at the port village of Faifo. Hội An was founded as a trading port by the Nguyễn Lord Nguyễn Hoàng sometime around 1595. The Nguyễn Lords were far more interested in commercial activity than the Trịnh Lords who ruled the north. As a result, Hội An flourished as a trading port and became the most important trade port on the South China Sea
. Captain William Adams
, the English sailor and confidant of Tokugawa Ieyasu
, is known to have made at least one trading mission to Hội An (around 1619).
In the 18th century, Hội An was considered by Chinese and Japanese merchants to be the best destination for trading in all of Southeast Asia
, even Asia. Japanese believed the heart of all of Asia (the dragon) lay beneath the earth of Hội An. The city also rose to prominence as a powerful and exclusive trade conduit between Europe, China, India, and Japan, especially for the ceramic industry. Shipwreck discoveries have shown that Vietnamese and Asian ceramics were transported from Hội An to as far as Sinai, Egypt. However, the importance of Hội An declined sharply at the end of the 18th century because of the collapse of Nguyễn rule (thanks to the Tây Sơn Rebellion
- which was opposed to foreign trade). Then, with the triumph of Emperor Gia Long
, he repaid the French for their aid by giving them exclusive trade rights to the nearby port town of Đà Nẵng
. Đà Nẵng became the new center of trade (and later French influence) in central Vietnam while Hội An was a forgotten backwater. Local historians also say that Hội An lost its status as a desirable trade port due to silting up of the river mouth.
The result was that Hội An remained almost untouched by the changes to Vietnam over the next 200 years (somewhat reminiscent to the famous walled city of Carcassonne
in southern France
).
Today, the town is a tourist attraction because of its traditional architecture, crafts such as textiles and ceramics preserved and visitors are exploited. Many bars, hotels, and resorts have been constructed both in Hội An and the surrounding area. The port mouth and boats are still used for both fishing and tourism.
With the effects of global warming the traditional rough weather season of September - December is now rougher than previous years (highlighted by 2007 & 2009 typhoons and serious flooding, loss of life & damage to property). During this season great care must be taken by tourists to flood conditions.
The remainder of the year the weather is intermittent between rain & cold and hot and mild. It is now very difficult to predict weather conditions from December thru end of May.
Popular activities such as visiting offshore Cu Lao Cham islands are only guaranteed to be likely during the short season of end of May - end of August, which is the high season for domestic tourists.
by UNESCO
as a well-preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port of the 15th to 19th centuries, with buildings that display a unique blend of local and foreign influences.
According to UNESCO Impact Report 2008 Hoi An "...tourism has bought unacceptable changes to Hoi An..." (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001826/182646e.pdf) and today the culture and heritage that UNESCO status was meant to preserve has been destroyed by tourism.
Hội An attracts a relatively large number of tourists, although since 2008 less are foreigners, also being a well-established place on the backpacker trail.
. The Museum of Sa Huynh Culture
was built in 1995, and has over 430 ceramic items from 8th to 18th Century. The items originating from Persia, China, Thailand, India and other countries are proofs of the importance of Hoi An as a major trading port in South East Asia.
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, on the coast of the South China Sea
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
in the South Central Coast
Nam Trung Bo
Nam Trung Bộ is one of the regions of Vietnam. It consists of the independent municipality of Đà Nẵng and seven other provinces. The two southern provinces Ninh Thuận and Bình Thuận are sometimes seen as part of the Southeast region.The region has traditionally been one of the main gateways to...
of Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. It is located in Quang Nam province
Quang Nam Province
Quảng Nam is a province on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bordered by Thua Thien-Huế province to the north, the nation of Laos to the west, Kon Tum Province to the southwest, Quảng Ngãi Province to the southeast, the South China Sea to the east, and the city of Da Nang to the...
and is home to approximately 120,000 inhabitants. It is recognized as a World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
by UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
.
The city possessed the largest harbour in Southeast Asia in the 1st century and was known as Lâm Ấp Phố (Champa City). Between the seventh and 10th centuries, the Cham (people of Champa
Champa
The kingdom of Champa was an Indianized kingdom that controlled what is now southern and central Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through to 1832.The Cham people are remnants...
) controlled the strategic spice trade
Spice trade
Civilizations of Asia were involved in spice trade from the ancient times, and the Greco-Roman world soon followed by trading along the Incense route and the Roman-India routes...
and with this came tremendous wealth. The boats still used today in Hoi An probably have the same hull shape as those used by the Champas for ocean voyages.
The former harbour town of the Cham at the estuary
Estuary
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
of the Thu Bồn River
Thu Bồn River
The Thu Bồn River is a river in central Vietnam, located near Quang Nam Province.From its source near the border of Quang Nam and Quảng Ngãi provinces, it flows northwest through Bắc Trà My, Phú Ninh, Hiệp Đức and Quế Sơn districts; turning northeast, it forms the border between Đại Lộc district...
was an important Vietnamese trading centre in the 16th and 17th centuries, where Chinese
Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....
from various provinces as well as Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese, Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
ns settled. During this period of the China trade, the town was called Hai Pho (Seaside Town) in Vietnamese. Originally, Hai Pho was a divided town with the Japanese settlement across the "Japanese Bridge" (16th-17th century). The bridge (Chùa cầu) is a unique covered structure built by the Japanese, the only known covered bridge with a Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
pagoda
Pagoda
A pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist,...
attached to one side.
Etymology
The town was known to the FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
as “Faifo,” and by similar names in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
and Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
. A number of theories have been put forth as to the origin of this name. Some scholars have suggested that it comes from the word "hải-phố" (海浦) meaning "sea town", while others have said that it is more likely simply a shortening of Hội An-phố (會安浦), "the town of Hội An", to "Hoi-pho" which became "Faifo".
History
The early history of Hội An is that of the Cham. These Malayo-Polynesian peoples probably came from Java around 200 B.C. and by 200 A.D. created the Champa EmpireChampa
The kingdom of Champa was an Indianized kingdom that controlled what is now southern and central Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through to 1832.The Cham people are remnants...
which stretched from Huế
Hue
Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...
to beyond Nha Trang
Nha Trang
Nha Trang is a coastal city and capital of Khanh Hoa province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the North by Ninh Hoà district, on the East by the South China Sea, on the South by Cam Ranh town and on the West by Diên Khánh district...
. In the early years, Mỹ Sơn was the spiritual capital, Trà Kiệu was the political capital and Hội An was the commercial capital of the Champa Empire - later, by the 14th century, the Cham moved further down towards Nha Trang. The river system was the transportation for goods between the highlands, inland countries of Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
and Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
and the low lands.
In 1535 Portuguese explorer and sea captain António de Faria, coming from Da Nang
Da Nang
Đà Nẵng , occasionally Danang, is a major port city in the South Central Coast of Vietnam, on the coast of the South China Sea at the mouth of the Han River. It is the commercial and educational center of Central Vietnam; its well-sheltered, easily accessible port and its location on the path of...
tried to establish a major trading center at the port village of Faifo. Hội An was founded as a trading port by the Nguyễn Lord Nguyễn Hoàng sometime around 1595. The Nguyễn Lords were far more interested in commercial activity than the Trịnh Lords who ruled the north. As a result, Hội An flourished as a trading port and became the most important trade port on the South China Sea
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
. Captain William Adams
William Adams (sailor)
William Adams , also known in Japanese as Anjin-sama and Miura Anjin , was an English navigator who travelled to Japan and is believed to be the first Englishman ever to reach that country...
, the English sailor and confidant of Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa Ieyasu
was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan , which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but...
, is known to have made at least one trading mission to Hội An (around 1619).
In the 18th century, Hội An was considered by Chinese and Japanese merchants to be the best destination for trading in all of Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
, even Asia. Japanese believed the heart of all of Asia (the dragon) lay beneath the earth of Hội An. The city also rose to prominence as a powerful and exclusive trade conduit between Europe, China, India, and Japan, especially for the ceramic industry. Shipwreck discoveries have shown that Vietnamese and Asian ceramics were transported from Hội An to as far as Sinai, Egypt. However, the importance of Hội An declined sharply at the end of the 18th century because of the collapse of Nguyễn rule (thanks to the Tây Sơn Rebellion
Tây Son Dynasty
The name of Tây Sơn is used in many ways to refer to the period of peasant rebellions and decentralized dynasties established between the eras of the Later Lê and Nguyễn dynasties in the history of Vietnam between 1770 and 1802...
- which was opposed to foreign trade). Then, with the triumph of Emperor Gia Long
Gia Long
Emperor Gia Long , born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh , was an emperor of Vietnam...
, he repaid the French for their aid by giving them exclusive trade rights to the nearby port town of Đà Nẵng
Da Nang
Đà Nẵng , occasionally Danang, is a major port city in the South Central Coast of Vietnam, on the coast of the South China Sea at the mouth of the Han River. It is the commercial and educational center of Central Vietnam; its well-sheltered, easily accessible port and its location on the path of...
. Đà Nẵng became the new center of trade (and later French influence) in central Vietnam while Hội An was a forgotten backwater. Local historians also say that Hội An lost its status as a desirable trade port due to silting up of the river mouth.
The result was that Hội An remained almost untouched by the changes to Vietnam over the next 200 years (somewhat reminiscent to the famous walled city of Carcassonne
Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc.It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century,...
in southern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
).
Today, the town is a tourist attraction because of its traditional architecture, crafts such as textiles and ceramics preserved and visitors are exploited. Many bars, hotels, and resorts have been constructed both in Hội An and the surrounding area. The port mouth and boats are still used for both fishing and tourism.
Weather
Calm mild weather is now limited to the season of May/June - end of August when the seas are calm and wind changes direction and comes from the South. This is the season for sun & fun swimming, snorkeling & diving, sailing, etc.With the effects of global warming the traditional rough weather season of September - December is now rougher than previous years (highlighted by 2007 & 2009 typhoons and serious flooding, loss of life & damage to property). During this season great care must be taken by tourists to flood conditions.
The remainder of the year the weather is intermittent between rain & cold and hot and mild. It is now very difficult to predict weather conditions from December thru end of May.
Popular activities such as visiting offshore Cu Lao Cham islands are only guaranteed to be likely during the short season of end of May - end of August, which is the high season for domestic tourists.
Heritage and tourism
In 1999, the old town was declared a World Heritage SiteWorld Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
by UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
as a well-preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port of the 15th to 19th centuries, with buildings that display a unique blend of local and foreign influences.
According to UNESCO Impact Report 2008 Hoi An "...tourism has bought unacceptable changes to Hoi An..." (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001826/182646e.pdf) and today the culture and heritage that UNESCO status was meant to preserve has been destroyed by tourism.
Hội An attracts a relatively large number of tourists, although since 2008 less are foreigners, also being a well-established place on the backpacker trail.
Museums
The city has various small museums highlighting the history of the region, especially ceramics, such as the Museum of Trade CeramicsMuseum of Trade Ceramics
The Museum of Trade Ceramics is located in Hoi An, central Vietnam. It is a museum showcasing the origins and history of the town and the region.- External links :*...
. The Museum of Sa Huynh Culture
Museum of Sa Huynh Culture
The Sa Huynh Culture Museum is located in Hoi An, in the Quang Nam province of central Vietnam. It is a museum showcasing the pre-historic Sa Huỳnh culture, showcasing terra cotta work that has been found in the area.- External links :*...
was built in 1995, and has over 430 ceramic items from 8th to 18th Century. The items originating from Persia, China, Thailand, India and other countries are proofs of the importance of Hoi An as a major trading port in South East Asia.
External links
- Hoi An Ancient Town from UNESCOUNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...