Play bai choi, the UNESCO card game that is also a concert
Shout when your card is called
The An Hoi roundabout beside the An Hoi bridge, on the south bank, nightly from about 7pm.
Why it's unique
Bai choi was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2017, and central Vietnam, including Hoi An, is where it comes from.
It is not a performance you watch. You buy a card, take a seat in one of the bamboo huts, and a singer works through riddles that identify the cards by allusion rather than by name. Half game, half sung theatre, and you have to shout when yours comes up.
What makes it a record is that the artform itself is the listed heritage, and it is still played nightly as a game with the public rather than staged as a show for them.
Before you go
Rounds are short, so turn up and join the next one rather than looking for a start time. Sessions run roughly 7pm to 9pm.
The chanting is in Vietnamese and you will not follow it. That matters less than it sounds: the hut leaders point, and the other players will help you.
This is the best value thing in the old town after dark, and most visitors walk straight past it on the way to photograph the boats.