Hu Jintao makes surprise visit to his hometown of Taizhou

Taizhou got a shock from its most famous native son yesterday when the outgoing president, Hu Jintao, made his first visit in more than three decades to the city where he was born and raised.

Hu's trip to the city in Jiangsu province had still not been reported by state media last night, but that did not prevent residents from expressing their surprise at the presidential visit on microblogs.

"Oh my God! Old Hu is really coming home!" one Tencent user wrote, using a term of endearment for the leader.

The internet user posted a photograph of Hu waving from a minibus window and another showing a crowd outside a guest house with a banner that read: "Welcome President Hu."

"A woman who waited in the rain for hours to see Hu told me she 'felt so happy and excited' when she finally saw Big Brother Tao," wrote another microblogger, using a nickname for Hu.

"I think all her words were from the bottom of her heart, as her eyes were swimming with tears when she spoke."