It is really a rough ride for 47-year-old Luo Yunlian to spend nine days on the 2,000-km journey from her remote village in southwest China's Sichuan Province to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
As a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC)[Special coverage], Luo scales cliffs, rides a funicular and travels to Sichuan's capital Chengdu by bus before flying to Beijing.
Now she is discussing social and economic development with Chinese leaders and nearly 3,000 NPC deputies.
Behind Luo's journey are people's expectations for increased tourism, and solutions to water and power shortages back home.
NPC deputies are tasked with carrying forth the opinions and expectations of grassroots people and blending them into the country's top-level design. In other words, the deputies will ensure that development is really as the people wish.
In China, democracy means "the people are the masters of the country".
PEOPLE'S DEMOCRACY
People's democracy is the lifeblood of socialism, and the people as masters of the country is the essence and core of socialist democracy, President Xi Jinping has stressed.
This concept rules national political and social life. The composition of NPC deputies and advisors to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee offers an illustration.
Of the nearly 3,000 deputies to the 12th NPC, about 13 percent are workers and farmers, up 5.18 percentage points from that of the 11th NPC. The number of professionals also rose by 1.2 percentage points.
Of the more than 2,000 political advisors to the 12th CPPCC National Committee, 39.9 percent are Communist Party of China (CPC) members and 60.1 percent are non-Communist members, and all 56 ethnic groups have their representative members.
What distinguishes socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics from the West's largely money politics and power-for-money deals is its solid foundation of public opinion, which highlights the people's interests and aspirations.
CONSULTATIVE DEMOCRACY
In China, public matters are often settled through consultation involving all parties. Finding the best way to coordinate the aspirations and demands of the whole of society is the true meaning of people's democracy.
