Guo Qinghe squatted outside her home in Guangzhou on Friday afternoon, chopping up wood with a long-handled axe.
Ms Guo, who retired from the provincial finance department in 1995, lives in a high-powered neighbourhood in Dongshan district. The buildings in the area are mostly three-storey, red-brick villas dating back to the early part of the 20th century. Many, including Ms Guo's, are run-down. Others have been converted into stately homes at considerable expense by powerful officials and well-connected businessmen.
Just a few minutes' walk from Ms Guo's home along the area's quiet, eucalyptus-lined streets are two heavily guarded compounds - one belonging to the People's Liberation Army and the other to the Guangdong Party Committee. The latter's residents include Guangdong Party Secretary and Politburo member Li Changchun. Mr Li is now in Beijing for the 16th Communist Party Congress, where he is believed to have an outside chance of promotion to the Politburo Standing Committee this week.
Despite having such powerful neighbours and a government background herself, Ms Guo claims to be uninterested in the proceedings in Beijing. 'We're retired. We don't care about these big meetings any more,' Ms Guo said.
However, Ms Guo's life is about to be turned upside down by another, much earlier party congress.
Ms Guo has the misfortune of living adjacent to No 3 Xuguyuan Road, where the Chinese Communist Party's third national congress was held in June 1923. At that congress, a young delegate from Hunan province was first appointed to the party Politburo. His name was Mao Zedong.