Cross the bridge that is printed on the banknote

A bridge, a temple, and legal tender

The only one on Earth

A tiled covered bridge and the ochre houses beside it mirrored in dark, still water — Travelbusy.com · CC BY 2.0

A tiled roof with carved ridge ornaments covers a low stone bridge, visitors standing at its rail — David McKelvey · CC BY 2.0

White paper lanterns hang along a weathered timber balustrade above the stone arches of a covered bridge — Y.Shishido · CC BY-SA 3.0

A low stone bridge under a tiled roof with carved ridge dragons, potted plants along the canal wall — David McKelvey from Brisbane, Australia · CC BY 2.0

A woman in a yellow ao dai stands in a pink doorway beside a carved stone relief of a gourd — DavideGorla · CC BY 2.0

Chua Cau, the Japanese Covered Bridge, at the west end of Tran Phu in the old town.

Why it's unique

A covered wooden bridge with a small temple built into one side, raised by the Japanese merchant community around the turn of the seventeenth century, when this was one of the busiest ports in Southeast Asia.

Since 2006 it has been the image on the 20,000 dong note, so most visitors are carrying a picture of it before they arrive. A bridge that is also a place of worship and also national currency iconography is not a category with other entries in it.

Before you go

It reopened in August 2024 after a restoration that ran from 2022 and cost about 20.2 billion dong, and the result was widely criticised at home for looking too new.

That argument is the thing to arrive knowing. You are looking at a live disagreement about what it means to restore a wooden monument in a wet climate, not at a ruin, and the debate is more interesting than the building is photogenic.

Walk through early. By mid-morning the queue for a photograph blocks the entrance.

Crossing costs one tab of the old town ticket. Standing at either end and looking costs nothing.

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