Every fact below names its source and the month we checked it. Local legends are labelled as legends. Spotted a mistake? Tell us through the contact page.
Hoi An was a busy trading port from the 15th until the 19th century.
From the end of the 15th century the area drew Vietnamese residents, and by the start of the 17th century Chinese and Japanese settlers were arriving in a steady flow to live and trade. That mix produced a series of diverse neighbourhoods and streets inside the old town, and the newer city still partly keeps its old role as a trading place.
Source: Wikipedia, Hoi An Old Town. Checked October 2026.
Hoi An's old houses survived because the town stagnated and had little money for rebuilding, so nobody tore them down to put up new ones.
The source ties this to the port's economic decline since the start of the 19th century. With little new development, old materials were not replaced with newer ones, so the town kept its historic fabric. That is the background to its classification as a National Cultural Heritage Site in 1985 and as a Special National Cultural Heritage Site in 2009.
Source: Wikipedia, Hoi An Old Town. Checked October 2026.
Japanese merchants began the Japanese Covered Bridge in 1593 and finished it in 1595. It was renovated in 1817, 1865, 1915 and 1986.
Japanese merchants had set up their own enclave in the port city, then called Faifo, and the covered bridge crossed a neighbourhood canal toward the Chinese enclave on the other side. In 1719 lord Nguyen Phuc Chu named it Lai Vien Kieu, a bridge to welcome guests from afar. Renovations gradually added Vietnamese and Chinese elements in place of the Japanese ones.
Source: Wikipedia, Japanese Covered Bridge. Checked October 2026.
In August 1858 French troops under Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly landed at Da Nang.
Da Nang had been attacked before: in 1847 French vessels sent by Admiral Cecille bombarded it. Both attacks were ostensibly about alleged persecution of Roman Catholic missionaries. The 1858 landing was part of the Cochinchina Campaign, ordered by Napoleon III. Vietnamese forces under Nguyen Tri Phuong besieged the occupiers, who retreated in March 1860.
Source: Wikipedia, Da Nang. Checked October 2026.
The old town covers 30 hectares (74 acres). It holds 1,360 monuments and heritage sites, including 1,068 preserved houses.
UNESCO listed the old town as a World Heritage Site on 12 December 1999. The government had classified it as a National Cultural Heritage Site in 1985 and as a Special National Cultural Heritage Site in 2009. The whole town is owned by the government, which set up a 280-hectare buffer zone around it.
Source: Wikipedia, Hoi An Old Town. Checked October 2026.
Da Nang's Dragon Bridge opened on 29 March 2013. It is 666 m (2,185 ft) long and 37.5 m (123 ft) wide, with six traffic lanes.
The bridge crosses the River Han and is a steel arch-beam-wire structure shaped like a dragon. Its main span was completed on 26 October 2012. It opened to traffic on 29 March 2013, which was the 38th anniversary of North Vietnamese forces taking Da Nang during the Vietnam War, known in Vietnam as the American War.
Source: Wikipedia, Dragon Bridge, Da Nang. Checked October 2026.
Building the Dragon Bridge cost nearly 1.5 trillion Vietnamese dong, about US$88 million at the time.
The dollar figure was the equivalent when the bridge was built, so today's exchange rate would give a different number. The money paid for a steel bridge in the shape of a dragon, 666 m long and 37.5 m wide, with six lanes for traffic across the Han River.
Source: Wikipedia, Dragon Bridge, Da Nang. Checked October 2026.
The Marble Mountains are five hills named after the five elements: metal, water, wood, fire and earth. Every one of them has cave entrances and tunnels.
The five hills form a cluster of marble and limestone south of Da Nang, in Ngu Hanh Son District, and the name itself means five elements mountains. Several Buddhist sanctuaries sit within the mountains, which is part of why they draw visitors, and you can climb to the summit of Mount Thuy.
Source: Wikipedia, Marble Mountains, Vietnam. Checked October 2026.
Chinese immigrants built five assembly halls in Hoi An.
One of the five halls served as a central assembly hall. They follow traditional Chinese architectural styles, with harmony, balance and aesthetics given special weight. Chinese settlers were one of several groups of immigrants who arrived from the start of the 17th century, and the town's architecture owes much of its character to those newcomers.
Source: Wikipedia, Hoi An Old Town. Checked October 2026.
The Japanese Covered Bridge has statues of a monkey and a dog. In Japanese folklore they are the two gods who control Namazu, a monster that causes earthquakes.
The bridge's temple has ornate decor, including porcelain bowls that cap the ends of the roof tiles. Chinese characters can be found throughout, including Lai Vien Kieu in front of the temple entrance. The temple has historically been an altar to Tran Vu, with an annual festival on the 20th day of the 7th lunar month.
Source: Wikipedia, Japanese Covered Bridge. Checked October 2026.
The Japanese Covered Bridge appears on the 20,000 dong banknote, released in 2006.
The bridge, called Chua Cau in Vietnamese, was granted the status of National Historic-Cultural Relic in February 1990. Japanese merchants began building it in 1593 to cross a neighbourhood canal, so the picture on the note shows a structure more than four centuries old, though renovations have mixed in Vietnamese and Chinese elements.
Source: Wikipedia, Japanese Covered Bridge. Checked October 2026.
Local legend, not a verified fact
According to legend, Japanese residents built a temple on top of the covered bridge in 1653 to calm Namazu, the earthquake monster of Japanese folklore.
Namazu is the monster that Japanese folklore blames for earthquakes. According to the legend, the temple was built to calm it, and the monkey and dog statues on the bridge refer to the two gods who control it. Japanese merchants later withdrew from Hoi An in the 17th century, yet the bridge and its neighbourhood stayed relatively preserved.
Source: Wikipedia, Japanese Covered Bridge. Checked October 2026.
Climate, airports and UNESCO status for Hoi An & Da Nang are on its destination page. More places are on the fun facts index.