Get access to the amazing Hoi An Impression Theme Park and Hoi An Memories Show with this pass!

The Hoi An Memories Show is the centrepiece, featuring more than 500 actors and dancers performing 400 years of history on a 25,000-square-meter outdoor stage. The show begins in the 16th century. Hoi An is a rural village, represented by a single farmer’s home and his family’s humble life. The city erupts around them, and the show progresses through the centuries from there. We watched Hoi An transform from a country town into a powerful central trading port in Southeast Asia when there were many ships from China, Japan, the UK, the USA… Royalty is crowned and married, foreign merchants arrive to conquer and trade in spice and crafts, and lanterns begin to adorn the streets like paper constellations.

Though the show presents major historical moments, the real magic is in its delicate representations of ordinary daily life. Hundreds of actors go about the business of living as it’s been done for hundreds of years. There are no dialogues or scripts. There is no language. The city itself is the main character and the narrator is the thread of time.

As the lighting shifts and changes to illustrate years and seasons, it is impossible not to realise that each spectator is also a character. This moment is a plot point in the script. Our present tense is utterly inseparable from the memory of its past.

Do not miss the opportunity to explore the Hoi An Impression Theme Park. Enter through the gates of the Thanh Chiem Palace, a relic that hearkens back to the lavish abundance of the Nguyen Dynasty. Past the citadel gates, facsimiles of five traditional artisan villages present the five basic elements that keep the universe in balance: copper stands in for metal, carpentry for wood, pottery for earth, lantern-making for fire, and fishing for water.

Continue through past fusions of Vietnamese, Japanese, and European architectural styles deeper into the park, where different areas offer different themes. A commercial trading port complete with shops, stalls, and bustling merchants represents the international trade of the 17th and 18th centuries. A Japanese village pays homage to the demographics of the time when a Japanese community left its mark on Hoi An’s culture through architecturally distinct buildings and bridges.

Interactive shows pop up on different corners every few minutes. Performers tell folktales and reproduce ancient myths of gods and goddesses, lords and princesses, tragic love stories, and acts of incredible heroism. Many of these are accentuated by sound effects, 3D projection mapping technology, and visually stunning backdrops.

Guests can join artisans’ workshops like apprentices to try out lantern-making, pottery, or loom weaving and then keep the craft as souvenirs.