No paper? No problem.
Political advisors to the upcoming annual session of the country's top political advisory body received "an unexpected gift" upon arrival, a laptop that can be used for free for 15 days.
"It's very convenient," said Li Yuhong, a member to the Second Session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which will open Tuesday afternoon and last nine days.
"Documents used to pile up in the room for up to one meter when the annual session concluded," Han Shuli, a member to the session and chairman of the federation of literature and art circles in the Tibet Autonomous Region, told media Monday. "It's too wasteful."
Political advisors usually got a dispatch case with all the hand-outs and documents in it when they checked in for previous sessions.
Instead, they each got a laptop and a USB memory stick this year.
Hotels accommodating political advisors used to reserve a special room for them to serf on the Internet, source information, and submit electronic edition of their proposals to the annual session.
"The laptop replaces the information room now to enable political advisors to exercise all the functions electronically and to realize no paper office for the first time," a staff member with the session said.
"I made a proposal to this effect last year," said another member to the session Wang Xisan. "I didn't expect it can be put into practice so soon."
A total of 2,235 political advisors are expected to attend the session, according to Zhao Qizheng, spokesman of the second session of the 11th CPPCC National Committee.
The secretariat of the session has received 265 proposals and 307 text statement by the political advisors as of Monday noon, he said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2009)