APEC first ladies tour UNESCO town in Vietnam

Vietnamese First Lady Nguyen Thi Hien, in blue long ao dai (the traditional Vietnamese costume), hosts the visit as her husband, President Tran Dai Quang, chairs a meeting  with leaders of other Pacific Rim economies in Da Nang, an hour to the northwest.

The wives and husbands have big company. The U.S. First Lady Melanie Trump stayed to play tourist in Beijing as her husband left for Vietnam on Friday.

A Vietnamese model plays a basket vendor of the old time Hoi An to greet the special guests.

Naraporn Chan-o-cha (C), a language professor and wife of Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha

Ho Ching, wife of Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (second from left) , look at photos she took on her cell phone. She is CEO of the state-owned national wealth fund Temasek Holdings and ranks the 28th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2017.

Nancy Ann Lange de Kuczynski, an investment advisor and wife of Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Kim Jung-Sook, a classical vocalist and wife of South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in.

The visitors on the Japanese Bridge, a centuries-old icon of Hoi An which was built by Japanese traders in the 17th century. The bridge, which graces Vietnam’s VND20,000 bills, is also called the Pagoda Bridge as there is a small shrine that was built at one end of the bridge in 1653.

The ladies spend around five minutes on the wooden bridge, wearing silk scarves gifted by host Vietnam.

The guests leave Hoi An under small shower, after visiting local famous silkworm farmers.