In a second car, a senior official comes along as part of the honourific package. A third conveys cadres from the foreign affairs bureau, keeping a careful eye. In spite of the crowd, the ordinary people one finally meets are usually quite relaxed. There no longer seems such anxiety not to say the wrong thing. Locally elected peasant leaders who have squeezed themselves into jackets and ties are keen to explain everything about their village.
New mothers go willingly into detail about their births.