Eyewitness/China: Hundreds of white tour buses thronged the normally bustling Tiananmen Square yesterday, bringing thousands of delegates wearing military uniforms, local costumes and, increasingly, western business suits, to China's annual parliament, the National People's Congress.
The cadres, who come from all over China, are cheerful and business-like as they ascend the steps to the massive Great Hall, a red-flag bedecked Soviet-style building where all the really big events in the capital are held. Including Riverdance.
This is a busy group of delegates, who have come on the final day of the congress to pass legislation allowing the use of force in Taiwan; to accept the resignation of Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa; and to set out the terms for a "harmonious society" in the face of a growing wealth gap in the world's fastest-growing major economy.
All around the square, which is the site of some of the bloodiest actions of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing, there are red flags flying from the roofs of buildings, lining the way to the Great Hall.
Security is tight. Soldiers stand to attention outside the hall and vigilant police ring a wider area around the hall.
Around 3,000 delegates make up China's top law-making body, the National People's Congress, with another 2,000 forming its top advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Their seats are laid out in tight order. Big bunches of flowers are on some of the tables where, again, red flags dominate.
It reminds one of the volkskammer chamber in what was once east Berlin, or the great meetings of the Soviet Union's heyday.
The effectively unanimous votes given for every Bill at the meeting, as well as the disciplined, enthusiastic rounds of applause, hark back to that time when the world was divided on clear ideological grounds.
While much has been made of "socialism with Chinese characteristics", the language of the congress is often pure Cold War-style, Marxist-Leninist theatre.
Chinese president Hu Jintao defines the harmonious socialist society as "one that features the socialist democracy, rule of law, equity, justice, sincerity, amity, vitality, stability and order, as well as harmonious co-existence between man and nature."
As well as being president of China, Mr Hu is also general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party's central committee and was officially voted in as head of the army during the National People's Congress.
While the language is still that of the cold war era, the issues debated are often similar to those in western capitalist democracies.
These days, the ideological boundaries are more blurred in China.
How do you stop growing disparity in income, combat unemployment and protect the environment, all at the same time?
Why is the stock market in China so down in the dumps? Once inside, the delegates discuss and rubber-stamp all kinds of legislation on issues like coalmine safety, the construction of a harmonious society, and the fight against corruption, how to raise farmers' incomes and what to do about improving food safety. All of this, as well as the anti-secession law and the resignation of Mr Tung on health grounds, are just a few of the topics discussed at the 10-day meeting.
At the end of the congress, premier Wen Jiabao holds his annual press conference, where he fields a variety of questions from Chinese and foreign journalists.
Pressed on the anti-secession law, Mr Wen plays down its martial tones, saying that China is committed to achieving unification with Taiwan by peaceful means. "This is not a war Bill," he says.
For the 10 days of the congress, traffic gets even more difficult in Beijing.
A special lane is set up to allow congress attendees get to and from the Great Hall in fast time. There is an NPC fast track at the airport - even the China mobile shop has a special VIP queue.
Out on the streets, around 650,000 volunteers wearing red armbands patrolled the old hutongs, or alleyways, of the old city, as well as the modern boulevards, keeping tabs on security.
All air sports involving paragliders, model aircraft and hot-air balloons were banned for the duration of the congress to stop any attacks from the air, though the gentle sport of flying kites, so beloved of Beijing pensioners, was seemingly unaffected.
At the end of the session, the congress attendees all came down the steps of the Great Hall, out on to the great square which is normally filled with tourists.
Not far from the Great Hall is the new Grand Theatre, a giant egg-like structure designed by French architect Paul Andreu, a reminder that China is firmly on the path to modernity.
Monks in saffron robes, uniformed senior army officials, women in eye-catching traditional costumes and top cadres in those ever-more-common blue and black suits file off to the waiting buses and back home for another year.