New faces meet media on red carpet

For years, a long red carpet in a side corridor of the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing has been the hall's most bustling place during the annual two sessions.

Hundreds of journalists, toting cameras with lenses of various lengths, arrive more than an hour before the start of news conferences to secure good positions.

The carpet has long been known as "ministers' passage" because it's where high-level officials meet with reporters and answer questions.