Profile: Liu Yunshan: Down-to-earth journalist joins CPC top leadership (3)

（Xinhua） 08:43, December 26, 2012

In this file photo taken on May 11, 2006, Liu Yunshan (R), then a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, also a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, shakes hands with a Russian guest while meeting a delegation of Russian mainstream media heads at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

As a journalist, Liu traveled extensively around major farming and pastoral areas in Inner Mongolia, visiting rural households and writing stories of human interest.

Keen to notice the changes of the time, he has over the years maintained his interest in ordinary people.

The stories Liu told about ordinary people earned him a reputation among the press and he was soon picked by higher authorities amid the Party's call to select and promote younger cadres at the beginning of the reform and opening up.

He started his political career while being transferred in 1982 to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Committee of the Communist Youth League of China.

At 38, Liu made a name for himself in China's political circles after he was elected in 1985 as one of the youngest alternate members of the 12th CPC Central Committee.