Hoi An is a small city on the coast of the South China Sea in central Vietnam. It is located in the Quảng Nam province and is home to approximately 88,000 inhabitants.
The city possessed the largest harbour in Southeast Asia in the First Century and was known as Lâm Ấp Phố (Champa City).The former harbour town of the Champa people at the estuary of the Thu Bon river was an important Vietnamese trading centre in the 16thand 17thcenturies.
During this period of the China trade, the town was called Hai Pho (Seaside Town) in Vietnamese. During the French colonial period (1883-1945), it was called Faifo. Originally Hai Pho was a divided town, because across the "Japanese Bridge", it used to be the Japanese settlement (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.The town is known to the French 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 "Hái-phố" meaning "sea town", while others have said that it seems more likely to simply be a shortening of Hội An-phố, "the town of Hoi An", to "Hoi-pho" which became "Faifo".