Passage interviews offer more insight

I have lost track of how many times I've covered the two sessions - the country's annual political high season that usually falls in early March. In recent years, I have found my job getting easier as the sessions became more open to reporters.

In the past, it was quite a challenge interviewing deputies to the National People's Congress and members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Because legislators and political advisers have so many things to do during the annual meetings, such as discussing, voting or sharing their opinions with the leadership, they have little time for the media.

I still remember the bustling scenes inside the Great Hall of the People in the capital some years ago as hundreds of journalists, toting cameras with lenses of various lengths, ran after senior officials or celebrities attending the two sessions. Some female reporters lost their high-heeled shoes during the race, some quarreled over a camera position and some pushed each other trying to get close to the interviewees.