Last Tuesday Lesley was presented with her Friendship Award by China's Vice-Premier, Wen Jiabao's deputy Zhang Dejiang. He did a sterling job of doing the same for the 99 other Foreign Experts - his slightly forced smile can be explained by the fact that Lesley was number 82. Afterwards he even came over and shook Ali's hand, along with those of the rest of the "wives", sorry, spouses.
On Wednesday we were back in the Great Hall of the People to meet Wen Jiabao himself. He's a smiley, friendly wee chap, not the sort of person you'd think of deserving having a shoe thrown at him at all. Later we were entertained to dinner at the State Banquet to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the PRC along with the rest of China's political elite (and more than 5000 other bods!). It was quite an experience. Lesley's red dress made it easy to spot us when we made a very brief appearance on CCTV's late night news. The photo shows how close we got to the man himself. It was a moment comparable to the serendipitous, fleeting eye-contact we made with the Queen outside the Invercauld Arms Hotel in Braemar at the Gathering a few years back...
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