Chinese Fishing Nets & Vasco Da Gama Square

A vivid legacy of one of the earliest people to call on the Malabar Coast, these nets is unmistakable as one enters the harbour. Records show that they were first erected between AD 1350 and 450. Constructed out of Teak wood and Bamboo poles, they work on the principle of balance. The sight of catch being brought in and the nets being lowered back into the sea is one not to be missed.

The best place to watch is from Vasco Da Gama Square, a narrow promenade that parallels the beach with little stalls that serve fresh seafood, tender coconuts and so on.

"If China is where you make your money, then Cochin is surely the place to spend it."

Fort Cochin is believed to be the oldest European Settlement in India and St. Francis Church was the first European Church to be built in India. Fort Cochin probably has the best preserved history of colonial times and the ideal way to bring it alive is to take a walk down its old colonial roads, with its tree-lined avenues and quaint little lands, stretching upto the beach, where magnificent Chinese fishing nets sketch a spectacular skyline.

Infact, Fort Kochi is a unique place in the whole of the world where you get to see a mosaic of the world culture, European architecture and the flora and fauna of different parts of the world. Rightly so, UNESCO has declared it as a living monument of world culture. The streets and ancient buildings in Fort Cochin, portrays a combination of different cultures, contributed from the Protugese, the British and the Dutch, who set their foot on this marvelous land, which is indeed the crown of the Queen of the Arabian Sea.