This is my second year covering the two sessions, and I found myself as much a rookie as I was the first year I covered it – the learning process is long. Among the things I learned this year, the most valuable lesson is to be sincere, whether you are an interviewer or interviewee.

The media war during the two sessions is tough every year: journalists use all their wiles to capture a candid photo or absorbing quote from harried NPC deputies and CPPCC members. It is a journalist's vocation to be quick, but what is more important is to be responsible.

I was like a student before the CPPCC members: I took notes of their speeches as they were delivered, marked what I didn't understand and read through them afterwards to figure out the answers. I never felt embarrassed to check with them what was unclear to me when I covered topics I am not so familiar with.

An auto expert and health official I interviewed discovered I was no specialist in their fields and I admitted as much. They suggested not going into details that were unclear to me so as to make the story easy to understand. I looked up more background information to support their main points.

A teacher told a story about asking a question about a research report presented at a panel meeting he attended last year. "I just could not help speaking out because I happened to know something that contradicted it," he said at a group discussion. "The value of research cannot be exaggerated."

CPPCC members are prone to voice opposite opinions to the country's senior intellectuals. On several occasions I heard negative responses to government documents discussed in panels and hot debates over controversial issues.

The care taken by CPPCC members to be precise means reporters have a duty to report on them accurately.

Lost in the sea of reporters and potential interviewees, I was unable to make all my plans materialize. But luckily, I was saved by an admirable educationist.

I made an appointment with a liaison officer to interview the vice chairman of the Central Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy, Zhu Yongxin. The officer told me to call her to link me up with Zhu as she is not supposed to release the cell phone and hotel room numbers of CPPCC members for security reasons. It turned out that the officer could not be reached at that time.

I got Zhu's room number from another officer and left a voice mail together with my cell phone number, without any real hope of a response as I know he had a very busy schedule.

But I was wrong. He called back the next morning and I did the interview.

I revised my opinion about the CPPCC, the country's political consultative body, as being mysterious and inaccessible. Instead, they want their voices heard and are cooperative and tolerant.

But one thing is not tolerated. Former NBA player, Yao Ming, voiced unhappiness at constantly being labeled "star CPPCC member". He said it is not right for journalists to ask for his photo and autograph during the sessions.

"Being a ‘star' is my ‘past'. My ‘present' is as a CPPCC member", said Yao during a press conference. "I need more attention paid to what I am doing during my CPPCC membership, not what I have achieved in the past. Serving on the CPPCC is a serious thing."

Yao's words reminded me of my rookie year at the sessions five years ago and what I learned from NPC deputy Deng Yaping and CPPCC member Liu Xiang, both of whom are sports stars. Hurdler Liu was cooperative in answering questions about his CPPCC proposals and table tennis player Deng said, "I respect you because you respect me as a deputy".