Jamal Hashem Ahmed, the Xinhua News Agency war correspondent who was the first in the world to report the outbreak of the war in Iraq last March, is now visiting China.

Until December 17, he is scheduled to visit the nation's three largest cities -- Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Ahmed's maiden Chinese trip has been widely reported by local media.He said local people recognized him while he was riding a taxi and again at the Great Wall.

"I am so surprised that so many people know me in China. In Iraq, no one knows me," said Ahmed.

Before the outbreak of the war Ahmed was an ordinary veteran who owns a small shop in Baghdad. He has a beautiful wife, two sons, and a peaceful and well-to-do life.

But the war changed everything. Despite the atrocities it brought to Iraqi people, it was somewhat a turning point in Ahmed's life. He was presented with the opportunity of becoming a journalist, a career he had dreamed of since his youth.

Because of his driving skills and comparatively better English, he was employed by the Baghdad branch of Xinhua.

After March 17, Xinhua's Chinese staff had all left Iraq, while Ahmed and four other Iraqi employees stayed on the front line.

It was Ahmed's courage and quick response that helped the official Chinese agency beat such venerated adversaries as Reuters, CNN and the Associated Press by a statistically significant 10 seconds in reporting the outbreak of the war.

That has also been applauded as a huge step of Chinese media.

"China's once sluggish and overly circumspect media'' had "scored important victories,'' said Shanghai-based Xinmin Weekly.

The weekly said Xinhua had also drawn sharp attention from the international media, adding: "News of the first shots fired in the conflict came not from AFP, the Associated Press, al Jazeera or CNN, but from our country's Xinhua News Agency."

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