Hello from Chongqing, China!

Now that I've had a moment to catch my breath... Hello from China!

I arrived in Shanghai from San Francisco just this past Monday night, met up with Shusaku at a hotel near the airport, then crashed. After only 2 hours of sleep Saturday night, and a fairly sleepless United Airlines flight (predictably uncomfortable), I was dead tired. We then woke up at 5:30am to catch a flight to Chongqing, where we've now been for a day.

Let me relate my impressions so far... China is great! 'much more advanced than I (admittedly) expected. I had frequently heard comparisons made between China and India in the past - how both are the up-and-coming economic and political super-powers in the world, each with a billion+ people moving forward by leaps and bounds.

Well, I went to India last year, and it was interesting to see where it was making progress and where it had a long way to go. I was impressed by the determination of many families to educate their children in the sciences and become successful - they have a number of excellent schools and very bright youth, and the IT sector is booming. On the other hand, India is very, very dirty, and has a fairly underdeveloped infrastructure - and that's what hits you first.

China, though - in my very brief time here so far - gives off a different impression: growth, everywhere. Shanghai's airport is big, clean, and very modern. The short trip I took on the highway from the airport to my hotel was fast, on a modern highway with modern cars, passing by modern billboards advertising modern electronic devices, with nicely manicured shrubs lining the sides of the road. I saw no litter or tobacco juice stains or people urinating nor animals wandering as I saw frequently in India. When our plane landed in Chongqing, everyone pulled out their PDA/cell phones and started chatting and tapping away. When we deplaned, I was also greated by a modern airport and a modern, clean airport shuttle, and decent infrastructure. Of course, I was also greeted by a very thick layer of fog/smog, an unfortunate byproduct of rapid development meeting a large population.

Now, granted, I haven't seen much of China yet, and I'm sure there are areas where it can improve, especially outside of major cities - but props to the government and its people for at least giving a great first impression. (Shusaku pointed out how in some places in the very modern airports, the construction materials and techniques were a little suspect. Kind of like Ikea - looks nice on the outside from a distance, but of questionable quality. I think this provides a useful counterpoint to the above accolades - a healthy sense of skepticism is important.)