Old House of Tan Ky

This guide to the Old House of Tan Ky in Hoi An starts with a mother-of-pearl panel above the family altar that looks like calligraphy but is actually a hundred tiny birds spelling out a poem. It follows the merchant Le Tu Hien, who arrived in the port an orphan in 1741 and built the house from trade up the Thu Bon River, and traces the Japanese and Chinese craftsmanship worked into its beams and pillars without a single nail. It also touches on the 1964 flood that brought the Thu Bon River to the ceiling of the ground floor, and the seven generations who have lived upstairs since.