Hoi An Old Town

About this audio guide

In a merchant house beside the river in Hoi An, a guide traces the improbable path of a shipwrecked bowl. It follows fishermen off Cu Lao Cham island who began pulling antique porcelain from their nets in the early 1990s, the black market that grew around it, and the arrest at Da Nang airport that blew the smuggling ring open. From there it reaches a government-licensed salvage operation and divers working a wreck seventy meters down. Listen for how one fishing haul turned into a years-long hunt for where that porcelain belonged.