Hoi An is unusually quiet these days, but that does not stop bougainvillea, Rangoon creeper and the rare yellow sua flowers from extending a warm summer welcome. 

“Sac Hoa Mua He Pho Hoi” (Summer Flowers’ Colors in Hoi An) is a collection of very recent photographs taken by Do Anh Vu, a resident of the town for 3-4 years.

The photographer says that each season brings different shades to Hoi An and he remains motivated to capture all of them. Summer is a particularly attractive time in the town as many flowers brighten up the surroundings by blooming in colorful profusion. 

One of the most cultivated flowers in the town is the bougainvillea, or paper flowers. Here, they grace the corner of Tran Phu and Le Loi streets and provide welcome shade to a group of cyclos and their drivers while they await customers.

A woman wearing an orange ao dai holding a bunch of yellow sunflowers adds color the scene as she goes past a house with pink bougainvillea flowers in a cyclo on Bach Dang Street. The town has bougainvilleas in several other colors including orange and white. 

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Hoi An has hardly seen any international tourist in the last 12 months. Tourism revenues in Quang Nam Province, where Hoi An is located, dropped 82 percent year-on-year in 2020 to over VND1 trillion, according to the General Statistics Office.

A bunch of bright pink Surfinia flowers joins the bougainvillea in gracing the corner of Hoang Van Thu and Tran Phu streets as a senior couple walk by.

Hoi An’s ancient ambiance makes it an ideal setting for some young people to get photographed wearing rustic and traditional dresses. They are sitting in the shade of a robust Rangoon creeper with its fragrant blooms. The fragrance gets particularly intense at night.

The yellow sua (dalbergia tonkinesis) trees, which bloom only in warm weather, showers its blooms around a famous banh mi restaurant in Hoi An.

The towns of Hoi An and Tam Ky are particularly known for the yellow sua trees. 

“Hoi An has two streets with the yellow sua flower trees: Nguyen Hue and Phan Chu Trinh. A gust can carpet the streets in yellow,” Vu said.

A young woman in a white ao dai walks on Nguyen Hue Street, which is lined by the yellow sua trees.

​Quang Nam Province is studying the possibility of welcoming international visitors from countries that have contained the pandemic on charter flights and unscheduled flights that are not part of the regular, commercial airline routes.