India's ruling Congress party president Sonia Gandhi arrived in Beijing on Thursday along with son Rahul, daughter Priyanka, son-in-law Robert Vadra and their two children to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

She and her family traveled from New Delhi to Beijing by a regular commercial Air China , and there was remarkably little fuss about their arrival in Beijing.

Sonia Gandhi will be seated in an enclosure reserved for the guests of the Chinese government at the August 8 opening ceremony at the Bird's Nest stadium as she does not hold any government post. She will not be in the VVIP enclosure where President Hu, Bush and other heads of states and governments will be seated.