Throw a pot on a wheel another person kicks
Five hundred years, still foot-powered
Thanh Ha pottery village, about 3 km west of the old town along the Thu Bon. Small entry fee, cycling distance.
Why it's unique
Thanh Ha has been making pottery since the fifteenth century and is still a working village rather than a demonstration. The wheels are turned by a second person kicking, not by a motor.
It is one of the five craft villages that supported Hoi An's admission to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for Crafts and Folk Arts on 31 October 2023, alongside carpentry, lantern making, bamboo and coconut work, and textiles.
The claim here is continuity and the designation rather than exclusivity. Old working craft villages exist elsewhere in Vietnam, and that is worth being straight about.
Before you go
The kicking is the thing to watch and the thing you will be bad at. One person turns while the other shapes, and the rhythm between them is the skill.
The Terracotta Park next door is a separate paid attraction and a completely different proposition: 6,000 square metres of world monuments reproduced in fired clay. Decide in advance whether you want the working village or the park, because people arrive expecting one and get the other.
Cycle. It is flat, 3 km, and the road follows the river.