BEIJING, March 5 (AFP) - The grandson of Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong lost his bearings Friday at the symbolic heart of the nation his grandfather founded and had to rely on aides to rescue him from a press pack.

Mao Xinyu, who holds the rank of senior colonel in the People's Liberation Army, was mobbed by journalists upon leaving the opening session of China's rubber-stamp parliament in Beijing.

Mao, 40, refused to answer reporters' questions as two emergency response personnel in bright orange jumpsuits and white helmets pushed journalists aside while escorting him out of the Great Hall of the People, venue for the session.

But his escape from the press was delayed as he was unable to find his car in a parking area next to Tiananmen Square just a few hundred metres from where his grandfather's embalmed body rests in a huge mausoleum.

After several frantic minutes avoiding journalists and searching for his car, a group of military aides came running up to take him away.

"Where is the car?" Mao was heard asking the aides.

"It is at the north gate," an aide said.

"Well, where are we?" Mao responded.

"You are at the east gate," an aide said.

Unscripted media encounters by Chinese officials and political figures are extremely rare in China, where the Communist Party strictly controls access to information.

The heavy-set Mao, who bears a resemblance to his grandfather, currently works as a researcher at China's Academy of Military Sciences.

He has written several books including "My Grandfather Mao Zedong."

The National People's Congress, China's parliament, opened its annual 10-day gathering on Friday. It is widely viewed as a rubber-stamp body that exists to endorse the directives of the ruling Communist Party.

Mao is a delegate to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a body that in theory "advises" the main congress on political matters. The two assemblies' sessions run concurrently.