Olympic table-tennis champion Wang Nan (left), a Liaoning Province delegate, and Zhou Suhong, captain of the Olympic-winning Chinese Volleyball Team, walk into the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday afternoon for the preliminary meeting of Communist Party of China's 17th National Congress. Zhou, of Jiangsu Province, is the wife of Tang Miao, the Shanghai volleyball player now recovering after a neck injury incurred in Russia in June.- Xinhua 

While newspapers carry daily reports promoting the country's achievements in the run-up to the national congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), many Chinese have been using chatrooms, online surveys, letters and phones to voice their expectations and ideas for the future.

Four of the top ambitions, as revealed by the Xinhuanet, are restraining the power of officials, curbing corruption, improving living standard and narrowing the wealth gap. Other issues that provoke concern include political reform, Taiwan issue, rural poverty, the sustainability of economic growth, and judicial justice.

A parallel survey about the country's achievements reveals that Chinese have been impressed by the appointment of non-Communist officials to head government departments - a move political observers hail as a sign of the Party's increasing openness.

As well the new concepts of "a scientific outlook on development" and "the harmonious society" have sparked a package of policies designed to help the needy who have missed out on many of the benefits of the economic boom.

Apart from China's achievements and the acclaim for the country's soaring economic strength, those surveyed are largely unsatisfied about energy conservation, rural poverty, job opportunities and the use of taxes and fiscal policies to manage the economy.

As the CPC National Congress opens today, there are concerns over side effects of the country's rapid growth, such as the widening wealth gap and a deteriorating environment. People are wondering how the Party is going to continue to steer the world's most populous country into prosperity.

A bulletin board themed "Get words off your chest to the Party" on the people.com.cn sponsored by the Party's mouthpiece People's Daily shows just what people are expecting from the Party Congress.

More than 7,000 messages from college students, village heads, teachers, wage earners and government employees are directly addressed to Hu Jintao, urging the Party's general secretary to take "uncompromising measures" to get rid of corrupt Party members who abuse their power and to provide more conduits for ordinary people to lodge complaints against authority.

Farmer Liu Aisheng, from central China's Hunan Province, sent a letter to the State Bureau of Letters and Calls, an office that handles public complaints, asking the Party Congress to bring more rewards to the people.

"As a grassroots delegate (to the Party Congress), I feel more responsibility," said Wang Xiulian, secretary of the Communist Party Committee of Cuandixia Village of Beijing.

China's rural areas have witnessed drastic changes thanks to a rising injection of funds from the government but many farmers still have difficulty accessing public services, especially transportation, clean water and health care, she said.

Delegate Li Liancheng from Puyang City of Henan Province said he will faithfully pass the thoughts and wishes of his people to the CPC central authorities and bring home the Party's guidelines.