Profile: Xi Jinping: Man of the people, statesman of vision (2)

（Xinhua） 09:23, December 24, 2012

File photo taken in 1973 shows Xi Jinping (2nd L) poses for photo during the period when he is an educated youth in Yanchuan County of northwest China's Shaanxi Province. (Xinhua)

In his first visit outside Beijing as the top CPC leader, Xi went to Guangdong, the forefront of China's reform and opening up, following the route Deng had toured 20 years ago when the country was at a crossroad.

Media reports remarked that Xi is a leader who brings a fresh breeze to the country's political life, unswervingly pushes forward reform and opening up, and is beginning to lead the Chinese nation in realizing the China Dream.

Xi, 59, who was elected to his new role at the first plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee on Nov. 15, is the first top Party leader born after 1949, the year the People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded.

He now leads the 91-year-old CPC, the world largest political party with more than 82 million members, as it rules China, the world's second largest economy.