Stuck behind the scenes as China changes leaders

[NewsCaster]

Clockwise from top left: Carlos Barria / Reuters, Ng Han Guan / AP, Alexander F. Yuan / AP, How Hwee Young / EPAScenes from the corridors and anterooms of the Great Hall of the People during the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. By Le Li, NBC News

BEIJING — More than a thousand reporters turned up at the Great Hall of the People on Wednesday, expecting to cover the closing session of the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th Congress where the final leadership line-up would be revealed. But they soon discovered the election of the country's new leaders had ended before they had even entered the main conference hall.

Instead, they heard about the results the same way everyone else did: from state news agency Xinhua.

Xinhua live-blogged the event – both in Chinese on Sina Weibo and in English on Twitter, even though the latter is still blocked in China.  When the news agency posted a message that President Hu Jintao was casting a vote, the journalists were all stuck in the long corridors of the Great Hall of the People.Ed Jones / AFP - Getty ImagesJournalists wait in a corridor to be allowed access to the main hall during the closing ceremony of the Communist Party Congress on November 14, 2012.

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