"HI, my name is Li. Here is the question that my friends and I want to ask. You seem to be very healthy and you seem to have a very nice figure. We're into sports. So I'd like to ask you, Mr President, in college what sports did you like to play? How do you maintain your energy? And can you predict which team is going to win the World soccer cup?"
Mr Li was a caller to Citizens and Society on Radio Station 990, Shanghai's popular radio talk-in show, which reaches 2.6 million homes. The guest he called yesterday was President Clinton, enjoying the type of radio chat show he has abandoned at home because of the Monica Lewinsky allegations.
His answer was that he played basket ball in college, he kept fit with a Stairmaster and golf. And, as for the World Cup, "I think the Brazilians are always hard to beat".
The radio show was the third and last of Mr Clinton's three live broadcast events on his historic nine-day tour of China, and despite the lightness of content, it had some impact in a city where leaders do not often engage in free-wheeling dialogue with the masses.
The fact that ordinary people - the radio station insisted the calls were not screened - could talk to the US President on any subject, even his fitness and figure, was itself the message.
Mr Clinton, Diet Coke in hand, told a caller that it was good to be asked "rather probing, difficult questions", by students in Beijing on Monday, adding pointedly: "People everywhere want to engage their leaders in dialogue." Sitting beside him in the studio was Shanghai's Mayor, Mr Xu Kuangdi.
One caller ignored the US President to ask the mayor about encouraging people to buy cars, saying this would worsen pollution and traffic jams.
"I thought that question was terrific," Mr Clinton said later.
The Chinese presenter turned to the mayor as the 45-minute session came to an end and asked did he not think that listeners would like him back on the programme. "OK, fine," said Mr Xu, "As long as you arrange it, I'll come."
"Didn't you think it was fun? Didn't you have a good time?" insisted the host. "Yes, yes, it was very, very nice," replied the mayor, unable to refuse.
Mr Clinton used the radio show to repeat his appeal for greater personal freedoms in China, carefully wording his remarks so as not to appear to be subverting the Chinese government.
"High levels of personal freedom are quite important to the success of a society in the Information Age because you need people who feel free to explore, to state their views and convictions and then live out their dreams and this will add to the stability of a society by enriching it," he said.
Mr Clinton used another forum - a round-table discussion with community leaders, to make a major statement on Taiwan. For the first time as President he enunciated US policy in terms his Chinese hosts wanted to hear.
He said that in discussions with President Jiang Zemin, he "had the chance to reiterate our Taiwan policy which is that we don't support independence for Taiwan, or `two Chinas' or `one-Taiwan one-China'. And we don't believe that Taiwan should be a member in any organisation for which statehood is a requirement," he said, repeating what is often called the "three noes" of US policy.
Mr Clinton added: "Our only policy has been that we think it has to be done peacefully. That is what our law says, and we have encouraged the cross-straits dialogue. And I think eventually it will bear fruit if everyone is patient and works hard."
His comments, delivered in the same city where President Nixon signed the 1972 Shanghai communique recognising "one China", were immediately criticised by Taiwan, where a foreign ministry spokesman said: "The United States and Chinese communists have no right and are in no position to conduct bilateral negotiations on anything related to our affairs."
In 1979, the US switched its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing but the Taiwan Relations Act permits unofficial contacts, including US arms sales. Taiwan exercises a form of independence as the Republic of China, but Beijing regards the island entity as a breakaway province.
Mr Clinton will visit Shanghai stock exchange and a new homes project today, and travel on tomorrow to Guelin, a scenic area in southern China, before ending his China visit in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, the Chinese leader travelled to Hong Kong last night for celebrations today marking the first anniversary of the return of the territory to China.
Pro-democracy activists are planning to demonstrate against President Jiang, who is unlikely to follow the lead of Mr Clinton who told students on Monday that if people demonstrated against him in China he would engage them in conversation.
In Hong Kong hundreds of journalists signed their names to a petition which was published in the Apple Daily newspaper calling for the release of a jailed mainland reporter, Ms Gao Yu. Her son, Mr Zhao Meng, called on Mr Clinton to intercede for her release on the grounds of declining health.
Ms Gao was given a six-year sentence in 1993 for leaking state secrets about China's structural reforms in articles published in Hong Kong's Mirror Monthly magazine.