Sawt Falasteen - Chinese legislators kick off annual gathering in chilly, grey Beijing

Nearly 3,000 representatives from around the country -- including rural Communist Party members and university professors -- are converging on Beijing this week.

A contingent of military delegates strode into the vast Great Hall of the People in dress uniforms, while representatives from ethnic minorities arrived in heavily embellished traditional garb.

Sporting legend Yao Ming, president of the Chinese Basketball Association, towered over fellow attendees on the steps of the Great Hall, while others ducked under umbrellas and donned raincoats in the wet weather.

The National People's Congress kicked off its conference on Tuesday morning, part of China's "Two Sessions" political showpiece, with an orchestral rendition of the national anthem and a work report read out by Premier Li Qiang.

"As a farmer, I feel so proud, that a farmer can have such high-level support from the country," delegate Fan Jiuping, who travelled to Beijing from the village of Qiaozhen in landlocked Shaanxi province.

Chen Yeguang, an NPC delegate and cell biologist from Nanchang University in southern Jiangxi province, said he expected to return home from the meeting with instructions on "how to carry out and implement his work in the direction of national goals".

- Masks off -

Large parts of the capital's historic centre have been closed off for the Two Sessions, with authorities constructing a maze of paths, car parks and checkpoints around the Great Hall of the People.

Attendees, many pulling up hoods and clutching scarves to keep dry, were made to alight from buses and walk along Tiananmen Square as guards and rain-soaked police dogs waited to inspect vehicles for explosives.

While last year's parliamentary assembly was marked by the drama of President Xi Jinping securing a historic third term, this year's gathering was off to a relatively low-key start.

And a few figures who shared the limelight with Xi at 2023's Two Sessions were notably absent on Tuesday -- disgraced former foreign minister Qin Gang, and former premier Li Keqiang, who died just months after giving his last work report to legislators.

Also absent were the face masks delegates donned throughout the three years of China's strict zero-Covid policy, as well as last year after the regime of snap lockdowns and mass testing was abruptly scrapped.

Only a handful of guards sported the once-ubiquitous blue surgical masks on Tuesday, with organisers also scrapping quarantine requirements for attending the event.

J.AbuHassan--SF-PST