One lesson Liu Yunshan learned more than 30 years ago remains as he is elevated to the top leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

"Get down to the earth," Liu, 65, often tells his colleagues. "Only in this way can we become people of confidence and intelligence."

He follows the same principle while his pragmatic approach impresses people, whether he worked as a journalist for Xinhua News Agency or supervised cultural and ideological work, whether he lived in the border areas in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region or stays in Beijing, the Chinese capital.

Along with Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli, Liu was elected on November 15 into the seven-seat Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee.

Since the new CPC leadership made their debut in mid November, Liu and other top leaders have been busy attending a series of symposiums soliciting public opinions on addressing China's problems.

"Now our Party has a good line to follow and solid goals to attain. But what really matters is how we turn those ideas into action by improving the way we work, the manner we study and the style we write," Liu said at a symposium with entrepreneurs, professors, officials and representatives from communities in Beijing in early December

Origin of Power

Born into a peasant's family in July 1947, Liu spent most of his childhood and early adulthood in Inner Mongolia, where he learned from farmers and herdsmen and later wrote first-hand stories about them.

After he graduated from a local teachers' college in 1968, Liu taught at a rural school and participated in farm work before becoming a Xinhua journalist based in Inner Mongolia from 1975 to 1982.

He wrote many stories on agriculture and animal husbandry as well as covered many of the most vivid scenes in the countryside, including his exquisite writing about what he saw and heard during an overnight stay at a budget motel 31 years ago.

The fluent and detailed way of writing Liu showed in his story was followed by many journalists and is still considered a model for concise journalistic writing.

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.

Before his promotion to head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee in 2002, Liu tempered himself in different posts successively as head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Committee, Party chief of Chifeng City and deputy Party chief of Inner Mongolia.