Ha Tien
A border town founded by a Chinese exile in the 1700s who ran it as an autonomous trading state.
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Ha Tien was established in the early eighteenth century by Mac Cuu, a Chinese merchant who left Guangdong after the Qing conquest, took the land from the Khmer court and then submitted to the Nguyen while running the place as an effectively autonomous trading port under his family for three generations. The Mac family tombs stand on Binh San hill above the town. The setting is karst - limestone hills, caves with shrines in them, and a coast of small bays - and the town's poets wrote a celebrated cycle of ten poems about its scenery in the 1730s. Ferries to Phu Quoc leave from here.
What you actually see
- A port founded by a Chinese exile - Mac Cuu, in the early 1700s.
- The Mac family tombs - on Binh San hill above the town.
- Karst hills and cave shrines - the landscape the poems described.
- Ferries to Phu Quoc - and a border crossing to Cambodia.
When to go
November to April, the dry season. A full day.
Honest expectations
The town is a working border and ferry port rather than a resort, and development along the coast has been fast. Beaches near the town are not clean. Cave shrines are small. The Cambodian border trade dominates parts of it.
Nearby
Phu Quoc is offshore; the Cambodian border is west.
What to pack for Ha Tien
Chosen from what this place is for. Tap a kit for the full checklist.
Opening times, ticket prices and seasonal closures change - check the official source before you go: official site.