We were all
very tired, so we had full rest on the rest day today. We had planned some
sightseeing programme with the guide in the morning yesterday, which was
cancelled. We took a small tour of the old Kashgar city in the evening. There
is an old market like the one in Hyderabad or Old Delhi. We visited that
market.
We most
surprisingly learnt that two persons from Mumbai are travelling to four
continents, Asia, Europe, South and North America. They were in Kashgar today
and Anupam contacted them on social media. We made appointment with them to
meet in the evening.
We met Mr. Praveen
Mehta, a textile businessman and Dr. Sudhir Baldota, a homeopath turned
photographer, in a restaurant. We talked and talked and talked late into the
evening. Their plan is to go to new places and meet and interview interesting
people including a Cambodian Akira who defuses landmines. They have met many celebrities
on their way till now. They started from Mumbai to North East and then enter
Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and then China. They plan to cover 70,000 kms.
in 4 continents in 300 days.
It was very
interesting meeting. There was lots of common interest between us and it never
looked that we were meeting for the first time. Dr. Sudhir took lot of
photographs. We took dinner together.
We returned
hotel late in the evening.
Today, being
the last day in China, I think we would learn something about China’s political
system. The political system includes the Communist Party and its military, the
People’s Liberation Army, the state, led by the State Council, to which the
Party delegates day – to – day administration of the country, and the National
People’s Congress (NPC). China has a Unicameral legislature.
China is governed
by the Communist Party of China, the state exercises jurisdiction over 22
provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct- controlled municipalities
(Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and the administrative regions of
Hong Kong and Macau. There are 33
province-level administrative divisions and two Special Administrative Regions.
These administrative divisions are
headed by a Secretary. He is in-charge of the province. The second-in-command is
the governor of the provincial government.
A Municipality
directly under the administration of the central government is a higher
lever of city which is directly under the Chinese government, with status equal
to that of the provinces. In practice their political status is higher than
that of common provinces.
An autonomous
region is a minority subject which has a higher population of a particular
minority ethnic group along with its own local government. An autonomous region
theoretically has more legislative rights than in actual practice. The governor
of each autonomous region is usually appointed from the respective minority
ethnic group.
The Special
administrative region is a highly autonomous and self-governing sub national subject
of the People’s Republic of China, that is directly under the Central People’s
Government. Each Special Administrative Region has a chief executive as head of
the region and head of the government. The region’s government is not fully
independent, as foreign policy and military defence are the responsibility of
the central government.
We had very
good journey in China for 20 days. We will leave the country with lots of best
wishes for the people here. We admire the infrastructure here, specially the
highways in the country, and would be missing the same.
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