Praise for President Hu Jintao's 'common touch' in visit to hometown

Pictures showing the usually stiff and expressionless President Hu Jintao making simple gestures of compassion while visiting his home area last week have won praise among a mainland public increasingly tired of entitled official behaviour.

Photographs of the outgoing president holding an umbrella for a low-level Communist Party official in Yancheng, Jiangsu, and accepting a hug from a researcher in Taizhou, near Yancheng, were posted on thousands of mainland websites, sometimes with headlines implying how normal such behaviour would seem for regular citizens.

It is common to see mainland officials even as low as county level shadowed by umbrella-carrying underlings.

No one could recall having seen Hu carry his own umbrella during his 10 years as president. He is famous for rarely smiling and giving clues about his personality during slogan-filled public appearances.

To highlight the contrast, internet users posted several photos of US President Barack Obama holding an umbrella or simply standing in a downpour.