The SS Oriana is permanently docked in the port city of Dalian, in China's northern Liaoning province. The luxury liner is often used by the provincial authorities to wine and dine visiting dignitaries, trade partners and VIPs. Towards the end of last year, the Oriana was the location for a lavish reception to conclude the Returning and Overseas Scholars Conference held in the city. It was to be the first time I encountered Bo Xilai; the former governor of Liaoning who was last week promoted to minister of commerce.
A number of my European colleagues and I were in Dalian to participate in what was described as a trade fair. As it turned out, our only function was to be foreign at an event staged to give the impression that the 'New China', as it was constantly referred to, is forward-looking, open and international.
After dinner we watched a performance that included a fat man who sang like Pavarotti and strong men who bent into impossible shapes. But the man of the moment was Mr Bo - the embodiment of the Communist Party's populism and a man now tipped as a candidate for a place at the top.
He was accompanied wherever he went by a battalion of fabulous young women wearing Madonna headsets and sassy little sailor outfits. He circulated easily between tables, shaking hands with every man, woman and child on board, graciously accepting the many requests for photos and autographs that his celebrity status guaranteed. Later, when he spoke on stage, his enraptured audience seemed powerless to resist him. They did not need to be asked twice when he invited them to join him onstage in singing the popular folk number, When We Were Young.
Mr Bo, 54, is a native of Shanxi province. The son of Communist Party elder Bo Yibo, who fought in the 1949 revolution, Bo Xilai grew up as a member of an elite circle of political 'princelings'. But his family background has not always been to his advantage. Despite serving with Mao Zedong on the long march, his father was jailed on fabricated charges during the Cultural Revolution and was rehabilitated only after Mao's death.
Bo Xilai was imprisoned from 1967 to 1972 following his father's fall. But life as a political outcast was thankfully short-lived and Mr Bo was admitted to the party in 1980, launching his political career.