On the day I arrived at the far-off Hong Thuy Commune of the A Luoi border district, I saw the image of a Pa Co woman busily “hunting” goby in a winding stream in the mountain and forest.

The donated organ from a 65-year-old woman, who was relatively lightweight from Hai Duong; the time of cold ischemia during transport across Vietnam was minimized; and the need to dissect the entire heart and major blood vessels before transplantation... These challenges were overcome by the medical team at Hue Central Hospital (HCH), bringing life to a patient with end-stage heart failure.

Woman teacher-artist Quynh Nga has just been honored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism as one of 78 advanced role models in the cultural field nationwide in 2023. Just returning from Hanoi, she confided, “I am really touched and delighted to be honored. I feel deeply grateful to my profession, my family, and my colleagues."

Going to the tailor shop at Dong Ba market, looking for the person who sewed the national flag in large quantities, I was introduced to Ms. Hanh's tailor shop. It was even more honorable when she was also the one who sewed the flags hung at Ky Dai Hue.

Of more than 350 artisans from the 69 well-known craft villages across the country participating in Hue Traditional Craft Festival 2023, artisan Phan Thi Thuan and her booth of the Phung Xa weaving village attracts many visitors because of her unique product: silk from lotus fibers.

There is an entrepreneur holding dual nationality, with a French father and a mother from South Vietnam. She, though not a Hue woman, has been attached to Hue and strangely crazy about Hue for more than 20 years now. That is also why she transferred most of her cultural and artistic assets to Hue, devoting a luxurious and spacious space inherently for profitable business purposes to building a non-public museum of fine arts.

Apparently, the first time I met Ms. Dam Thu was also the first she got to A Luoi., and it has been 20 years. Time is mentioned because she has just sent me a bunch of beautiful photos of Hue with the message: "Sent from Canada... For Hue people, it's too familiar. It has been six years since I returned to Hue."