Fodor's Expert Review Heritage House
On the southern edge of the Old Quarter's Street of Rattan stands a Chinese-style house built at the end of the 19th century. A rich dark-wood facade fronts a sparsely decorated interior. Exquisitely carved chairs, bureaus, and tea tables decorate the second floor, where a balcony overlooks a courtyard festooned with Chinese lanterns. A Chinese family that sold traditional medicines on the ground floor originally occupied this house until they resettled in 1954 in southern Vietnam, along with many other Chinese living in the Old Quarter. It's hard to imagine that from 1954 until 1999, when a cooperative venture between the local government and a group of architects from Toulouse, France, turned the house into a museum, five families shared this small space.
