The Japanese Covered Bridge: Why It's There, Why It's Famous, and What to Photograph

The Japanese Covered Bridge, called Chua Cau (Pagoda Bridge) in Vietnamese, is a 20-metre wooden footbridge crossing a narrow canal at the western end of Hoi An's Old Town. It is closed to vehicles and there is a small temple built into the middle of the bridge — which is unusual enough that the bridge has been the symbol of Hoi An for 400 years.

The bridge is on the 20,000 VND Vietnamese banknote. Most travellers do not realise they have been carrying a picture of it in their wallet since they arrived.

The canal underneath is called Thu Lien and connects to the Thu Bon river 80 metres away. At low tide the canal is almost dry; at high tide and during the autumn floods it can rise to within a metre of the bridge floor.

Between roughly 1590 and 1640 Hoi An was a thriving international trading port. Japanese, Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese and Arab merchants lived in the town in separate quarters along the river. The Japanese quarter sat on the west side of what is now the Old Town; the Chinese quarter sat on the east side. The bridge was built around 1593 to connect the two communities.

Local tradition says the bridge was built to slay a giant mythical creature whose head was in India, tail in Japan, and body running underneath Hoi An — its movements supposedly causing earthquakes in all three places. Building the bridge over its 'back' was meant to pin it down. This is why a small temple sits inside the bridge: it is dedicated to the Bac De god of the north, who is said to control such creatures.

Whether you believe the mythology or not, the bridge was a working pedestrian crossing for the Japanese merchant community for about 50 years before Japan's 1638 closed-country policy ended Japanese trade with Vietnam. The Japanese quarter dissolved over the following century, but the bridge was rebuilt several times and kept its name.

Walking across the bridge is free. Visiting the small temple inside requires the Ancient Town ticket (120,000 VND, includes five sites of your choice from a list of about twenty heritage spots).

The temple visit takes 5 to 10 minutes. There is a small altar, a bell, two carved dog statues at one end and two monkey statues at the other end (because the bridge construction supposedly started in the year of the monkey and finished in the year of the dog).

The best photography windows:

Dawn to 07:00 — empty streets, soft light, the bridge yellow against an empty sky. The temple is closed but the exterior shot is the iconic one. This window has been increasingly known to other photographers, so even 06:00 can have 10 to 15 people there.

17:30 to 18:30 — golden-hour light, lanterns starting to switch on inside the bridge, the day crowd thinning before the lantern-festival evening crowd arrives.

18:30 to 19:30 — lantern light, the entire bridge interior glowing red and gold, a popular wedding photography spot. Busy with people but the busiest faces are looking at the bridge, not at the camera frame.

Avoid 10:00 to 14:00 — that is the group-bus window and the bridge is functionally impossible to photograph clearly during it.

The Japanese Covered Bridge is the most-photographed structure in Vietnam after the Reunification Palace and the Notre-Dame Cathedral Saigon. Every Hoi An hotel uses it on their marketing material. Every group tour stops there.

This does not make the bridge a bad visit — it is genuinely a beautiful, distinctive, 400-year-old structure. But it does mean you should not expect a quiet contemplative moment unless you are there at dawn or dusk. By 09:00 the bridge has 80 people on it. By 11:00, 200 people. By 14:00, again 200 people. The bridge handles it well — the wooden floor has been worn smooth by four centuries of feet — but the photograph in your head and the photograph you take will be different.

On a private walking tour the bridge is one of the first stops if we start at 08:00, the last stop if we start at 16:00. Both work; the first option has cooler temperatures and emptier streets, the second has the lantern light.

The bridge sits at one corner of the Old Town's heritage grid. From the bridge you are 3 minutes' walk from each of these:

— Fujian Assembly Hall (the most ornate of the three Chinese halls, 5 minutes east) — Tan Ky merchant house (18th century, original furniture, 6 minutes east) — Quan Cong temple (8 minutes east, dedicated to the Chinese general) — Thu Bon riverside market (3 minutes south) — Tran Phu food street (immediately on the east side of the bridge)

A Hoi An Old Town tour typically does the bridge first, then traces a loop through three or four of the heritage sites and ends at the riverside. The whole walk is under 2 kilometres but you spend 3 to 4 hours on it because the stops are dense.