Hundreds of thousands of netizens posted appeals and questions to Premier Wen Jiabao on special bulletin boards prepared by main media websites in China in the run-up to the premier's press conference on March 14.

Premier Wen surprised his audience on the same occasion last year when he told the press he had read an official website where people had raised hundreds of questions for him prior to the press conference.

This time, several major Internet portals at home joined forces to solicit questions for the premier. On one online forum alone this year, www.xinhuanet.com, more than 2,500 people have posted their questions and 240,000 have read them. There are dozens of such websites in China.

CCTV host Wang Xiaoya raises a question for Premier Wen at the press conference in Beijing, on March 14, 2006. [China Daily]

In addition, well-known journalists such as Hong Kong TV host Sally Wu and CCTV host Wang Xiaoya are also soliciting questions from netizens on their personal blogs.

Such an invitation for public involvement inspires hope for benign interaction between the country's leaders and the general public.

Altogether, he and his cabinet received hundreds of thousands of questions and suggestions from enthusiastic netizens, Premier Wen disclosed at the press conference.

Most of the messages expressed concern over mainstream topics such as the soaring prices of real estate, education and medical care, rural problems and assessment of reform, according to messages posted online.

"I am going to have a baby, so my husband and I want to buy our own apartment. It would be a big burden when we also have to pay for our kid's education and medical care for our parents," said Yue Ya'er at xinhuanet.com.

"Would you please tell me what you are going to do to make any of these an apartment, children's education or seeing doctors more affordable?" she asked.

There is also anxiety about finding employment.

"I am a senior college student and will graduate in July, but about two-thirds of the students in my class, including myself, haven't found a job," said Ruo Han at the same forum.

"Those who have rich parents are going to pursue further studies in Europe or the United States, but what about us from ordinary families? Can you help us?" he asked.

It is not just the more computer-savvy urbanites expressing their concern, their relatively disadvantaged rural compatriots are also making their voices heard.

"The county government has sold the farmland in my village and the developer will soon pull down my house. It was built only four years ago and we have not paid off the loan we took to build it," said a man who called himself "Countryside Intellectual" in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region at
www.sina.com.

"I understand that you and your government are building a 'new countryside" featuring social harmony. So I'd like to know what's your view on the county government's move," he asked the premier.

Meanwhile, a village health worker in North China's Hebei Province said that he wants to know more about rural medical reform, which Wen emphasized in his speech on the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) days ago.

"People like me have worked for decades but cannot benefit from the social security system when we get old. I'd like to know how the government is going to help us," he said at www.sina.com.

But some tried to draw Mr Wen's attention to problems such as the rights of hepatitis B patients, low salaries for soldiers, rampant corruption among government officials who have wasted and embezzled public funds and gay marriages as well.

The tone of most postings tended to be mild, although some could not help using stronger language.

"Because of the rapid economic development in the east, most of the land has been seized, and most of it illegally," one bitter message read.

"The land in the western region is of poor condition and yields poor harvests. If this goes on, let's wait till the day when grain prices skyrocket and by that time, we can cook and eat cash notes. Don't expect the US and Canada to sell grain to us."

Another touched on the sensitive topic of political reform.

"If we don't accelerate political reform with all our effort, and witness its effectiveness, even if you work to exhaustion, new problems will arise when old problems are not yet resolved," one posting read.

Yet another asked why so many ministers and vice-ministers who had reached retirement age were still in the cabinet.

But one netizen wasn't convinced that a temporary opportunity to express an opinion to the premier was enough.

"Do you mind telling us your e-mail address?" the writer asked.

"I could sense the people's expectations from these comments and proposals. I could also see the confidence and power of the general public from those comments. Our country and our nation now stand at a new historical turning point, " Premier Wen pointed out when saying a few words to the general public, particularly those who surf the Internet asking questions directly to him, at the beginning of his press
conference.