Hoi An is one of those places that soon become part of travel folklore. People arrive for a stay of a few days and leave weeks or months later. With a population of 75,000 the place is small but for the visitor it is a relaxed little town resplendent in traditional architecture with signs of foreign contact and has now become a shoppers Mecca.

In 1999 Hoi An became a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it is such a well preserved traditional Asian trading port and shows the fusions of cultures in an international trading port. Humans settled in the Hoi An area at least 2200 years ago. The port really began to develop when Hoi An or Lam Ap, as it was then known, became part of the Champa Kingdom. The kingdom thrived between the 2nd and 15th centuries. Persian and Asian traders used the port as a provisioning stop for their trading ships. These days not much of this early period remains bar some foundations of Cham towers around Hoi An.

Unfortunately I don’t seem to have any electronic version of this article.