The thunderous noise which greeted the start of Mr Jiang Zemin's keynote speech to the 15th Chinese Communist Party Congress yesterday came not from the 2,048 delegates but from the hundreds of foreign media representatives in the gallery stampeding to the exits - where the text was being distributed.
It was more a booklet than a speech, running to 59 bound pages which the general secretary took two-and-a-half-hours to deliver. He was introduced with a burst of The East is Red from an army band but his oration proposed a semi-privatised China which is now no more than slightly pink.
He spoke from a podium in the Great Hall of the People surrounded by potted flowers - through binoculars he seemed to be in a botanical garden - the massed ranks of the presidium on the stage behind him.
This was a once-in-five-years opportunity to observe the collective ranks of the Communist Party elite. The front row containing the top 33 leaders was made up exclusively of men in business suits and army generals. There were no traditional Mao jackets. Nor was there a single woman.
In the rows behind, there were a few token village workers in caps, and a sprinkling of women delegates, including the model bus conductress, Ms Li Suli, eulogised in the media for looking after passengers in comradely fashion on the No 21 bus in Beijing.
Otherwise the only women on stage were the elegant tea servers who flitted about in blue costumes, bow ties and white gloves replenishing the tea cups from huge thermos flasks. At the end of his exhausting speech, the party leader received polite applause, the Vice-Premier, Li Peng, said simply: "Time to rest" - and everyone trooped out into Tiananmen Square for lunch.