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Some big topics on the Internet give an indication of what interests the public the most in the ongoing two sessions. According to a report by the Internet science research center at Wuhan University, between March 3 and March 8, the five topics that generated the most public interest were Internet finance, smog, pay raises for civil servants, care for the elderly and genetically modified food. The ratings were derived from surveys of micro blog posts and online media reports, which are thought to provide good benchmarks of the public mood. Well, hot topics may be important but trivia is interesting, too. Here are some items gleaned from places like the hotel that is hosting the NPC delegates and national political advisers. What do you think you might find in the lobbies of the designated VIP hotels? Answer: an essential trinity - a State-owned Xinhua Bookstore, another stand selling ready-to-wear clothes and tailoring services, and a temporary post office. I went to the bookstand and talked with a saleswoman who said she had provided best-sellers to the two sessions for the last four years. The book New Words of Zhijiang sells the best, she told me right away. It's actually a collection of columns written by Xi Jinping for Zhejiang Daily while he was serving as the Party chief of the eastern province. "The delegates like reading books concerning the nation's development and reform. Some are very academic - common readers don't pick them up," she said. | 
