He walked the streets with a candidate's finesse, chatting with the locals, buying a round of ice cream, holding a kitten, even kissing a baby or two. It might well have been a campaign stop.
But on this particular Friday morning, US Senator Joseph Biden wasn't canvassing constituents in his home state of Delaware. He and two fellow senators were on the other side of the planet with a more international goal in mind: getting a glimpse of life in China's countryside, where 70 percent of the nation's 1.3 billion people live.
Every American visitor, Biden said, stands to learn from an expedition beyond the sprawl of the Beijing building boom.
PHOTO: REUTERS/POOL
"There would be a greater appreciation for the incredible -- how should I say it? -- leap that China still has to make for the vast majority of its citizens," said the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, a Democrat, who was accompanied by Senators Fred Thompson and Paul Sarbanes.
"I'm struck by the tremendous development in Shanghai, Beijing. But it's good to come out here and put it into perspective," Sarbanes said.
Yanzikou is a village of hand-fashioned brick houses down a narrow road an hour north of Beijing. It sits against jagged mountains near both the Great Wall and the newer Snow Village Ski Park, and its 200 people farm vegetables and pomegranates in the surrounding hills.
What makes it distinctive, however, is the building topped with a cross in the heart of town. Yanzikou is 80 percent Catholic -- the government-regulated version of Roman Catholicism that isn't permitted to affiliate with the Vatican.
The village priest, the Reverend Joseph Zhang Depu, welcomed the senators to his sanctuary in a whisper. Biden, who is Catholic, walked among unadorned wooden pews and glanced at the Christmas lights hanging from a chandelier.
"This was a house once," Zhang told Biden, who knelt before him.
"For how long were you unable to be a priest, openly ministering to your flock?" Biden asked.
"I'm too embarrassed to say," responded Zhang.
"I'd go to confession," Biden joked, "except you'd have to hear my sins."
Thompson chimed in. "It would take too long," the former actor quipped.
Outside, Biden cautioned against conclusions.
"The attitude of what constitutes a religion here or in the United States is very different," he said. "I wouldn't extrapolate from this that there's necessarily religious freedom in all of China."
Then, away from cameras, he slipped back into the empty church and deposited three folded 100-yuan bills (US$37) into the collection box.
From there, the senators strode through the village. Biden said each person they met they spoke to why they came: to help Americans begin to understand China -- and help Chinese understand Americans better.
Among the latter were Gao Shan, 11, and Yan Songlu, 7. Biden spotted them playing in the sun-baked dirt and strode up. They seemed average enough, but he saw something else in them: China's future.
"Hello, Mr President, Mr Premier," he joked good-naturedly. Then, to his staff: "These two could be running the country someday."
"President?" Gao Shan said as his mother beamed. "I'm happy to hear that."
A bit later, the Americans boarded their air conditioned bus and were hustled off to see the Great Wall, leaving behind smiling children and bemused adults.
And the future president and premier of China? They walked away happy: Joe Biden gave them his address and invited them to America.
More importantly, he bought them Popsicles.
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