Chinese President Jiang Zemin has wound up his trip to Vietnam by visiting an tourist town in the central part of the country. Mr. Jiang spent much of Friday taking an informal walk through Hoi An, a 17th century port town that was a center of Chinese trade with Vietnam and still has a small Chinese community.

The 75-year-old president walked the streets, waving and stopping to chat with people along his way, and visited a number of historical sites, including old Chinese temples and merchant houses. At one point, Mr. Jiang stopped to pose with a baby.

Reporters along the way asked the Chinese leader, if he was emulating former U.S. President Clinton who took a similar walk during his visit to the country in 2000. Mr. Jiang answered by using a Chinese proverb to indicate everyone has their own way of doing things.

The Chinese leader began his visit to Vietnam Wednesday, meeting with Hanoi's top leaders for talks focusing on military and economic ties. During his trip Mr. Jiang stressed the ties that have grown between the two countries in the past decade.

Relations between China and Vietnam have steadily improved since they re-established full diplomatic relations in 1991. They fought a brief but bloody war in 1979, after Vietnam invaded Cambodia to oust the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge government.

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