Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese president, visits the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi on Dec 13, 2023. (WANG ZHUANGFEI / CHINA DAILY)

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese president, visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, on Wednesday to lay a wreath and pay his respects.

This was the fourth time Xi paid tribute to the late Vietnamese leader.

The first events on Xi's itinerary when he visited Vietnam in 2011 as Chinese vice-president were laying a wreath at the mausoleum and visiting Ho Chi Minh's stilt house, where the leader spent the final years of his life. During his state visits to Vietnam in 2015 and 2017, Xi again visited the mausoleum and the stilt house.

Ho Chi Minh spent 12 years in China engaged in revolutionary activities, leaving his footsteps all over the country and forging a special bond of camaraderie and brotherhood with leaders of the CPC, including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai

Xi once told Chinese and Vietnamese youth representatives that in the hearts of Chinese people of his generation, Ho Chi Minh was the best friend of the Chinese people and was fondly known as "Uncle Ho".

In 2017, when Xi took a stroll at the stilt house with Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, he emphasized the importance of carrying forward and developing the China-Vietnam friendship to benefit both peoples, just like what the leaders of the older generation did.

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Ho Chi Minh spent 12 years in China engaged in revolutionary activities, leaving his footsteps all over the country and forging a special bond of camaraderie and brotherhood with leaders of the CPC, including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai.

He once compared the close Vietnam-China relationship to that of "hand and foot, mortar and pestle, root and stem, and older brother and younger brother".

The Ho Chi Minh Exhibition Hall in Chongzuo, a city in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, which borders Vietnam, is dedicated to documenting the days the late leader and other Vietnamese revolutionaries spent in China.

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More than 700 photos and over 60 other exhibits on display showcase their deep friendship with the Chinese people.