Chinese President Hu a crowd-puller
By Asha Popatlal/Hoe Yeen Nie/Ng Lian Cheong, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 13 November 2009 1835 hrs

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SINGAPORE: With many political leaders in town, there was also a fair bit of star gazing at the APEC meeting venue at Suntec Convention Centre.

Among those who attracted a crowd was Chinese President Hu Jintao. Almost an hour before his scheduled arrival to speak at the APEC CEO Summit on Friday, about 60 camera crew, journalists and curious onlookers gathered.

Among them were some university student volunteers from China. They gave their leader a rousing cheer and some of them like Gao Weihua and Zheng Yue were visibly moved.

Gao said: "I don't know why but when the moment comes, everything turns out so exciting, everything turned to tears."

Zheng said: "(I) burst into tears because of seeing Chinese President Hu Jintao and this has been a lifelong dream of any Chinese student."

Earlier Friday when President Hu visited Nanyang Girls' High, he was also given a rousing welcome by a long line of students.

He toured the school, donated 5,000 copies of a Chinese-English dictionary to the school and using a webcam he chatted with some students who are on an exchange programme at Shanghai's Fudan University.

"How long have you been in Shanghai?" asked Mr Hu.

"We've been here for six weeks," replied the students.

"I hope you will treasure your time in Shanghai, make more Chinese friends, get to know Chinese culture better and contribute towards building closer ties between China and Singapore," said Mr Hu.

Mr Hu later visited the Changi Water Reclamation plant which turns used water into usable water.

- CNA/ir