Xi Jinping participates in farm work in Liangjiahe Village, Yanchuan County in Yan'an City, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. (Photo: Xinhua)
When Xi Jinping worked as secretary of the Communist Party of China Shanghai Municipal Committee in 2007, Wang Zhan, a policy researcher, was one of Xi's colleagues.
Wang said that Xi once told him an impressive story about his learning experiences
Wang said Xi told him that when he lived and worked in Liangjiahe village in Shaanxi Province as an educated youth, he wrote a letter to his father Xi Zhongxun. In the letter, Xi briefed his father on his status as a shepherd.
A copy of Xinhua Dictionary (Photo: VCG)
To Xi's surprise, his father helped him learn by correcting his wrongly written characters with a red pen in the reply letter. Xi then started to carry a Xinhua dictionary with him every day. Years later Xi told Wang that he still remembered a location on the mountain where he left the sheep and began teaching himself.
"After hearing Xi's story, I thought to myself that Xi set a very high bar over just a slip of pen," Wang said.
(Source: "Xi Jinping in Shanghai," a book recalling the seven months Xi Jinping spent working as the Shanghai Communist Party of China chief)
