China's Vice President lived in a cave for 7 years, eating gruel

Xi Jinping, the man expected to take Hu Jintao's post as general secretary of China's Communist Party later this year, came from humble beginnings. According to a LA Times profile this weekend, he lived in a cave for 7 years, after being sent to a rural village to do hard labor during the Cultural Revolution.

"A thin quilt spread on bricks was his bed, a bucket was his toilet. Dinners were a porridge of millet and raw grain."

He visits the United States this week.

Source: LA Times