Affects for common folk
"Do more practical things for the common folk" is the goal Xi has pursued all along, sources close to him said.
Xi's affections for the common folk were believed to come from his six years of rural life. As a young man at that time, he lived with fellow villagers in the cave dwellings on the barren Loess Plateau in Shaanxi, doing hard farm work together and chatting with each other.
"Many of my practical ideas stem from the life during that period, which has influenced me every minute, even till today," Xi later recalled his experience in Shaanxi. "It's the most fundamental thing (for an official) to truly understand the common folk and society."
To learn more about the opinions of the general public in Zhejiang, he went to the markets of farm produce to inquire about stall owners' earnings, boarded fishing boats to listen to fishermen's domestic trivia, and visited coal mine workers in shafts hundreds of meters underground. His down-to-earth working style influenced his colleagues a lot.
During south China's snow havoc in January and February this year, Xi went to snow-hit villages in Guizhou Province to express sympathy to local residents and make sure that they could enjoy a safe and happy Spring Festival.
In addition to his affections for the common folk, Xi is well known for amicability.
During an inspection tour in Hebei Province in January this year, Xi paid a special visit to his old colleagues in Zhengding County. They later recalled that Xi is almost the same as what he was more than two decades ago -- still so amiable and easy going.
Xi's work experience at the General Office of the Central Military Commission in the late 1970s and early 1980s also gave him special affections for the army. In the subsequent years, wherever he worked, he would visit the troops stationed there. From 1988 to 1990 when he served as secretary of the CPC Ningde Prefectural Committee in Fujian, he was said to often join the soldiers in watching movies in open air at night.
Xi was married to Peng Liyuan, a renowned folk song singer in China, in 1987. The couple has a daughter.
(Xinhua News Agency, March 16, 2008)
