Da Nang Bridges Guide: Dragon Bridge, Golden Bridge & More
Two Da Nang bridges pull the crowds: the Golden Bridge up at Ba Na Hills, and the Dragon Bridge over the Han River downtown. They are not alternatives to each other. One costs 650,000 VND and eats a day; the other is free and takes an evening, but only breathes fire at 21:00 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Which Da Nang bridge should you visit?
The Golden Bridge and Dragon Bridge are not interchangeable attractions. One requires a trip into the mountains and admission to a resort complex; the other is a working city bridge that becomes an evening gathering point.
Golden Bridge | Dragon Bridge | |
|---|---|---|
Location | Inside Ba Na Hills | Across the Han River in central Da Nang |
Experience | Mountain views, cable car, themed attractions | Riverfront walk, city lights, fire and water show |
Time needed | Most of a day, complex open 08:00 to 22:00 | About 15 minutes, plus dinner around it |
Best for | First-time visitors who want the famous hand bridge | Travelers who prefer a free city experience |
Main tradeoff | 650,000 VND, 45 to 60 minutes out of the city, and the 10:00 cable car queue | The show runs only Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 21:00 |
If your dates include a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, the Dragon Bridge is the easy one to add: free, central, done by half past nine. Pay for the Golden Bridge when Ba Na Hills as a whole appeals, not to collect one photograph.
The Golden Bridge and Ba Na Hills
The Golden Bridge is a 150-metre walkway at 1,414 metres, held up by two giant sculpted hands. It sits inside Sun World Ba Na Hills, so you need the 650,000 VND cable car ticket and most of a day to see it. Fog can give you the above-the-clouds shot or hide the valley completely.
Tickets, timing and what the photos leave out are all in our Golden Bridge Da Nang guide. If you want transport and entry handled, the Ba Na Hills and Golden Bridge day tour does the pickup.
Dragon Bridge and the Han River at night
Dragon Bridge is the Da Nang bridge that feels most connected to daily city life. Traffic crosses it throughout the week, while the dragon-shaped structure lights up above the Han River after dark.
The numbers are worth knowing before you judge the crowd. The bridge runs 666 metres across the Han and is 37.5 metres wide, carrying 6 lanes of traffic plus 2 pedestrian lanes, and it opened on 29 March 2013. More than 2,500 LED lights trace the dragon from tail to head, which is why the structure reads as an animal rather than a lit girder. It is the largest dragon-shaped steel bridge in the world, a record nobody was competing for and which still describes the thing accurately.
The fire and water show runs at 21:00 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, plus major holidays such as 30 April, 1 May, 2 September and New Year's Day. Around National Day 2026 the city ran it six nights straight, 28 August to 2 September. Fire comes first, then water, and the whole thing is over in about fifteen minutes.
Stand on the riverside or up near the dragon's head. Closer is more dramatic and wetter: the water jets reach the near pavement, so put your phone away before the second half. Get there by 20:30 if you want a spot on the head side. The wait is half the evening anyway, roasted corn smoke drifting between the carts and the whole embankment filling up.
Fifteen minutes is short enough that it belongs after dinner, not instead of it.
The other bridges over the Han River
Da Nang gets called the city of bridges for a reason. Four cross the Han within a single riverfront ride of each other, and 2 of them are worth a detour on their own.
Bridge | What makes it different | Opened |
|---|---|---|
Thuan Phuoc Bridge | Vietnam's longest suspension bridge, 1,856 m, at the river mouth | 19 July 2009 |
Han River Bridge | Vietnam's only working swing bridge: the middle span turns side-on for boats | 29 March 2000 |
Dragon Bridge | 666 m, 6 lanes, 2,500 LED lights, fire and water at 21:00 Friday to Sunday | 29 March 2013 |
Tran Thi Ly Bridge | Cable-stayed, 731 m, a single 145 m mast leaning like a sail | 29 March 2013 |
Han River Bridge is the one locals bring up first. It was the first bridge in the city designed and built by Vietnamese engineers, 487.7 metres long and 12.9 metres wide, and the middle section rotates to open the channel. At weekends traffic stops around 22:45 and the span begins to swing from about 23:00, taking roughly 15 minutes to turn. It is slow, and it is not staged for anyone. Half the crowd is people who happened to be riding home.
Thuan Phuoc sits where the river opens into the sea: 1,856 metres end to end, a 405 metre main span, 18 metres wide, towers 80 metres high. Ride across it toward Son Tra at dusk and the wind tells you where you are. Tran Thi Ly, upstream, is the sail, 731 metres of cable-stayed deck hanging from one leaning mast 145 metres tall, finished the same day as the Dragon Bridge.
Seeing the bridges in one evening
They sit in order along the water, so one unhurried ride covers all 4. Start at Thuan Phuoc in the north where the Han meets the sea, come back down the bank past Han River Bridge, cross at the Dragon, then carry on south to Tran Thi Ly. The lights are on from dusk and none of it costs anything.
Time it for a Friday, Saturday or Sunday and finish at the Dragon Bridge by 20:30, in place for the 21:00 show. Any other night the ride still works and the riverside food carts are the same ones. Bring a jacket between November and February; the wind off the river mouth is colder than the city behind it.
Which bridge fits your dates
Land on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday and you get both: Ba Na Hills in the day, Dragon Bridge at 21:00. Land midweek and the Dragon Bridge is just a bridge with lights, which is still a pleasant walk and not worth rearranging a trip for. For the rest of your stay, see our guide to things to do in Da Nang. Book the Ba Na day for the clearest forecast you have, because fog at 1,414 metres decides what you see.
Browse Meetup Travel's single tours and day experiences if you would rather have the Ba Na day arranged than work out cable car timings yourself.
Ticket prices and show times checked 14 September 2026 against Sun World Ba Na Hills and Da Nang Fantasticity, the city tourism department channel. Bridge lengths, spans and opening dates checked the same day against Da Nang Fantasticity and public bridge records. Show schedules shift for storms and city events.