Reporter’s Notebook: early start vital if I want to be out in front and beat rivals to global headlines
Day two: the second of our diary entries by ’South China Morning Post’ reporters, offering personal views on some of the behind-the-scenes activities during the annual plenums
Thursday, March 5
No, it was not Beijing’s train station. Not today. It was the Great Hall of the People.
A Bloomberg reporter arrived at the hall in the chilly capital at 3am today, only to find that three Reuters reporters were already waiting at the head of a queue.
Day One: Great Hall’s ‘hidden’ post office gains my stamp of approval
Over the next four to five hours the queue outside the East Gate grew steadily before thousands of lawmakers were finally welcomed inside to hear Premier Li Keqiang’s annual government working report.
Waking up shortly after midnight to scramble for a place in the front of the queue is nothing new: it’s a crucial requirement for many people wanting to secure a return travel ticket for the annual family reunions over the Lunar New Year period.
Yet it’s also a talent the world’s reporters must master in order to beat their rivals – often by mere seconds – in filing stories to make global headlines about China’s key economic targets.
For all the latest news from China’s parliamentary sessions click here
The exact time that the working report, along with two other reports, will be distributed is always hard to predict.