Notice No.5

Opening of the 3rd Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress

The Opening Session of the 3rd of the 11th National People’s Congress will be convened at 9:00am on March 5th, 2010 (Friday) at the Great Hall of the People. The session will hear the report on the work of the government delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council and examine the annual reports on plan and budget.

Journalists may enter the Great Hall of the People by passing the security check at the south passage of its East Gate with NPC press cards 80 minutes in advance. Those who hold G2 Press Cards should be seated in Area No. 3, 5 and 7 in the front of the Second floor, while those who hold G3 Press Cards, be seated on the Third floor. For journalist on all floors, please put an end to your live coverage 5 minutes before the session begins.

Please keep quiet after the session begins. The staff of the Press Center will start to hand out the major documents about the session inside the Great Hall of the People 45 minutes before the session begins. For domestic journalists and journalists from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the hand-out location is the Press room, north of the First Floor. For foreign journalists, the hand-out location is the southern area of the Second Floor.

Before and after the session, journalists may conduct interviews in the area below the steps out of the East Entrance, or the area outside of the Grand Auditorium of the Great Hall of the People. Journalists may also conduct interviews with the Ministers sitting in on the session in the designated area east of the North Hall of the Great Hall of the People. All interviews should be put to an end 10 minutes before the session begins. Please do not conduct interviews on the street west of the Tiananmen Square that might lead to congestion.

For the journalists driving to cover the sessions, please drive through the East Entrance of the Tiananmen Square and park your vehicle in the designated parking area.