Quan Thang Ancient House, Hoi An

Quan Thang Ancient House is one of the parts of Hoi An’s Ancient Town area that you need to pay to visit. Other similar attractions nearby, which you also need to pay to enter, include the Museum of Folk Culture and the Museum of Trade Ceramics.

• Opening hours: 09:30 to 18:00 (Daily)
• Entrance fee: It costs a 120,000 VND fee to visit any 5 of the ticketed attractions in Ancient Town area of Hoi An, which includes the Quan Thang Ancient House.

About the Quan Thang Ancient House

Quan Thang Ancient House is one of the oldest, and arguably most interesting, of the Chinese style shop houses in the Ancient Town area of Hoi An.

Quan Thang Ancient House is not a museum in the sense that it has lots of displays of old objects. The house itself is the main point of interest, including the decorative features, many of which appear to be antiques. It takes only 10 minutes at most to explore this attraction, nonetheless, it represents a unique piece of Vietnam’s history and is worth visiting for that reason.

History of the Quan Thang Ancient House

Quan Thang Ancient House is believed to have been constructed in the late 17th Century (according to the metal plaque in front of the house) by a Chinese merchant called Quan Thang. If the date of construction is correct then the house may be around 50 years older than similar nearby houses. However, considering that the houses in the Ancient Town are built connected, in terrace house style, there is reason to sceptical around claims that the Quan Thang Ancient House was in fact built during a different time period.

At the time the Quan Thang Ancient House was constructed, Hoi An was one of the most important trading ports in Vietnam. One of the things which was traded from Hoi An was locally made pottery. More likely than not, pottery was one of the main products that Quan Thang made the money from to construct the house.

Interior of Quan Thang Ancient House

Quan Thang Ancient House is beautifully decorated in a very old style with wooden panels, intricate wooden carvings, Chinese style lanterns and Chinese calligraphy.

Quan Thang Ancient House also has areas related to religious worship including a shrine in the main hallway of the building. In South East Asian culture maintaining a shrine, once it is installed, is very important and failure to do so is widely believed to bring bad luck. For this reason, the shrines in Quan Thang Ancient House are likely to be the original ones installed several hundred years ago.

Another important decorative feature of Quan Thang Ancient House is the magnificent blue tinted pottery. The pottery isn’t from the time the house was built, but sourced more recently from local producers at Kim Bong Carpentry Village.

Courtyard at Quan Thang Ancient House

Another key feature of Quan Thang Ancient House is its central courtyard, which is uncovered.

This architectural feature is common to ancient Chinese architecture. The courtyard serves a dual functional purpose: to bring light into the centre of house and to keep it cool by promoting airflow. The way this works is that hot air within the house escapes via the doors at either end of this double fronted building sucking air into the house via the courtyard.

In old Chinese architecture it was also common to have a water feature in the courtyard, as this has a further cooling effect. The Quan Thang Ancient House looks as though it once had a large pond in the courtyard. There is a large square depression in the floor of the courtyard and a large stone wall decoration of the kind you might commonly see behind similar courtyard ponds.

Location of Quan Thang Ancient House

Quan Thang Ancient House is located 30.2 km by road from Da Nang Railway Station.