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Located by the banks of the peaceful Thu Bon River, Hoi An Ancient Town (Quang Nam province) is about 30 kilometers Southeast of Danang City. Hoi An shares the borders with Duy Xuyen district in the South, Dien Ban district in the west and North and the Pacific ocean (the East Sea) in the East. Hoi An Ancient Town consists of 10 wards and 3 villages, one of which is an 15 kilometer offshore island.
Hoi An is situated in the coastal tropical region with the average yearly temperature of 250C, and its climate is separated into 2 seasons: the dry season with severely hot weather from February to July and the rainy season from September to December. Especially from December until March, the average temperature has fluctuated from 180C to 210C and the humidity reaches 80-90%. The majority of inhabitants are Kinh people and Chinese.
Hoi An is domestically and internationally famous for its oldest urban architecture complex in the South East Asia and its well-preserved ancient style. Hoi An jas become a fascinating tourist destination which draws and attracts lots of domestic and foreign visitors for their discovery and expedition especially after Hoi An Town was declared a Cultural World Heritage on the 4th December 1999 by UNESCO.
Hoi An Ancien Town was formed in the 16th and 17th centuries. As one of the busiest commercial ports in the Central Vietnam frequented by trading ships from many countries for commercial activities, Hoi An became a Cultural crossroad mingling with the Western, Japanese and Chinese influence remains which have been preserved rather intact including ancient living houses, assembly halls, communal houses, temples, pagodas and shrines in combination with complicated but neatly-lined streets and roads according to chess squared planning (the urban commercial models of eastern countries in the Middle Age). In addition to its ancient town, Hoi An has been featured with natural landscapes, beaches, islands traditional cuisines attracting numerous visitors to indulge themselves in the ancient quiet atmosphere.
Furthermore, customs, conventions and old-aged cultural activities inherited and developed by Hoi An people have enabled Hoi An to be a living museum of culture and architecture. Thanks to its to early contact to various civilizations and cultures, Hoi An inhabitants have owned peculiar features in their way of living: both as calm and thoughtful as the Eastern and polite, elegant as the Western. Yet their characteristics such as hospitality, modesty and simplicity have been best known.
Upon arrival in Hoi An, you may feel that everything seems to be zoomed in and shrunk e.g. quiet ancient houses with moss-covered yin-yang tile roofs so adjacent to one another; calm and peaceful river branches in slowly flown water; immense white sand beaches, rising to a coastal village after. Everything is right in visitors, vision.
The streets in Hoi An are lined with ancient wooden houses which possess both old and sophisticated styles. Visitors can recognize that these houses are always open to visitors so that visitors can look through to the back of houses with frames, pillars, rafters and collar beams. Long parallel streets have the crossing end at a secluded wooden bridge with a low tiled roof and handrail for pedestrians. It is where Pagoda Bridge of Japanese Bridge – the symbol of Hoi An Ancient Town – is situated.
This ancient town had been under impact of the old Chinese culture for ages; thus upon arrival in Hoi An, visitors might see colorfully – decorated and refined temples and pagodas located here and there in the town with thir high and wide gates, blue curved ceramic tile on roof, which are very distinctive and unique. Such temples, communal houses and assembly halls, etc had been deeply influenced by the Chinese architecture. Shops along the sidewalks have only enough space for arranging a few chairs and table sets to serve visitor’s food and beverage needs or give them room for reading books comfortably. Everything – houses, pagodas, temples etc in Hoi An old-aged and ancient but affectionate, familiar and warmly-felt, which make travlers feel relaxed, unworried and unhurried.
Hoi An is most graceful when lanterns are lighted along old streets. Upon the sunset, hundreds of silk lanterns emit light which are sufficient enough for visitors, walking on sidewalks. Here and there in the street corners or on the sidewalks sat old-aged women by their food-selling bamboo frames whose baskets contains food and are surrounded by clients eating and talking excitedly. Visitors can obtain a fantastic relaxation while walking on Hoi An streets by night. The ancient town seems to bring visitors back hundreds of years ago at a place where there were neither high-rise buildings nor advertising-neon-light supermarkets. The living pace appears to be slower so that visitors can get away from hertic life and daily concern. Hoi An has been preserving cultural values which fascinate visitors to come, to explore and discover. All the things in town has been waiting for visitors, footsteps, even once.
Coming to Hoi An is returning to nice reminders of Hoai District which lies along the bank of the Hoai River which was known as a faifo to Western countries and was one of the wealthy and busy towns in South East Asia with its community of Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese residents who got along well. | 
