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SCMP Reporter

First Lady Wang Yeping was just another granny to the bemused kindergarten pupils she met yesterday.

 The 200 children at Pui Ching Primary School's kindergarten yesterday earned the privilege of spending 35 minutes with the VIP at their Ho Man Tin campus.

 President Jiang Zemin's wife was a guest of the school's end-of-the-academic-year ceremony.

 She was accompanied by Vice-Premier Qian Qichen's wife, Zhou Hanqiong, Commissioner of the Foreign Ministry in the SAR Ma Yuzhen's wife, Zou Jichun, Hong Kong Xinhua director Jiang Enzhu's wife Zhu Manli, and the Chief Executive's wife Betty Tung Chiu Hung-ping.

 Despite a brief introduction by a teacher on stage, most pupils were still in the dark about who the VIPs were.

 Four-year-old Lee Ho-yan, who was picked by teachers to present flowers to Mrs Jiang on stage, was confused over who she was making the presentation to.

 She said: 'She is a granny. I don't know her name. The teachers asked me to go to the stage and give her the flowers.'  For Tang Yi-tak, Mrs Jiang and other VIPs were just school supervisor Miss Leung's friends.

 Miss Leung was the MC at the ceremony and she introduced the VIPs to the pupils.

 'My teacher said we would have some special people come to visit us today, but she didn't tell us who they were,' the four-year-old said.

  Yi-tak and two other boys were chosen to present handicrafts to Mrs Jiang. Mrs Jiang in return gave several boxes of Japanese-made crayons and jigsaw puzzles to the students.

 But the box was too heavy for Yi-tak and he dropped it after a few seconds.

 Mrs Jiang was entertained by a traditional folk dance and an orchestra.

 But Primary Five student Fung I-ka, 10, was disappointed that Mrs Jiang left before she and her orchestra finished playing for her.

 There were also complaints as dozens of parents were banned from entering the school for some time because of police security checks.

 Many were soaked by heavy rain as they waited outside.

 Helen Yu Lai Ching-ping, Director of Education, said the school was chosen for the visit because of its long history and emphasis on all-round development, and because its end-of-school-year ceremony coincided with Mrs Jiang's visit to the SAR.



First Lady just 'granny' to children