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China’s city officials laud Governor-General’s punctuality

Contact : George Jude

Governor-General views Terracotta Warrior produced in the factory

Monday September 13, 2004 - Officials, city after city have praised Governor-General, Her Excellency Dame Pearlette Louisy for her punctuality, in meeting the busy schedule of visits to various meetings and site seeing tours, as the scheduled road closures and reopening to facilitate her entourage are met with great precision.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to St. Lucia, His Excellency Mr. Gu Huaming, who has been travelling with Her Excellency revealed that officials of the cities of Beijing, Xi’an, Shenzhen and Shanghai were very impressed with the Governor-General’s punctuality for the schedule of meetings and visits.

“When a Head of State visits a city, we try to get to the venues and return on time. This means that the routes have to be closed and traffic stopped at all the appropriate intersections, much to the inconvenience of motorists. So, it is great when we can reopen the roads on time, which cannot be possible if there are delays brought about by late departures. In the case of the Governor-General, we have been able to do so with great precision, because she is always on time for departure. And there has been nothing but praise for her punctuality”, said Ambassador Huaming.

At every stop, there has been a tight schedule of meetings with Provincial Government officials and visits to historical and cultural sites, starting from 8:30 a.m. and ending at 9:30 p.m. The programme involves much walking and signing of visitors’ books.

Pit of Terracotter Warriors on show in the museum

In Xi’an, the Governor-General, among other landmark venues, visited the famous museum of Terracotta Warriors and horse pits, which appears regularly on the well-known Discovery channel. The museum comprises over 400 life-size statues of warriors and horses discovered buried with Qin Shihuang, who became the first Emperor of a unified Chin over 2000 years ago. It is thought that Emperor Qin believed the worriers would protect him in his next life. Famed as the eighth wonder of the world, some 100 Heads of State and over 3 million foreign visitors have visited the Museum of Terracotta Warriors since opening in 1978. The site is on the world heritage list.

Xi’an (pronounced as Shean), a famous tourist city covers 9,983 sq km and has a population of 7.1 million. It is the largest centre for logistics in the northern region and a base for national defence, scientific research, higher education, aerospace, and electronics industry.

In 2003, Shaanxi province, which houses Xi’an and 10 other cities, had an annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of approximately US$30 billion, representing an 11 per cent increase over 2002. The GDP per capita was US$789, which was up 11 per cent on 2002.

 

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