The Haiphong Museum occupies a handsome French colonial building a couple of blocks from the Opera House. The collection is modest but worth an hour: archaeological pieces from prehistoric sites in the region, displays on the city's role in the resistance against the French and the Americans, and a section on local trades — shipbuilding, fishing, textile production — that built the modern city.
English labelling is partial and the lighting is dim, but the building itself is worth the visit even if the displays are not. The yellow-stucco exterior and the cool, high-ceilinged colonial rooms are some of the best preserved in the city.