[ Jan.2015 ] There are 5 Chinese assembly halls in Hoi An in Vietnam.
Assemply halls are written in Chinese character as 会館, which is a very familiar word for Japanese people, too.
But the origin of this word came from China, meaning that the gathering place for Chinese who live abroad and came from the same region in China.
The assembly halls in Hoi An were mostly built in the 18th – 19th century after Japanese people moved away from the town.
We went in two of them, one was Cantonese assembly hall and the other was Chinese All-Community assembly hall, which was built by the fund of 5 different congregations.
The buildings were very decorative.
I am not sure but they are not supposed to be temples, but we saw the prayer incense coils which I had seen in a temple in Hong Kong.
We did not go any others because we thought they all looked similar, but apparently Fujian assembly hall is the most spectacular one.
I wondered why we did not visit any of the assembly halls during the group tour two days before.
Is that because of the guide’s taste?
