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Thanks for the photos Hong, makes me feel very optimistic about the future of China.
The CIA World Fact book has a good excerpt on the Economy of China
In late 1978 the Chinese leadership began moving the economy from a sluggish, inefficient, Soviet-style centrally planned economy to a more market-oriented system. Whereas the system operates within a political framework of strict Communist control, the economic influence of non-state organizations and individual citizens has been steadily increasing. The authorities switched to a system of household and village responsibility in agriculture in place of the old collectivization, increased the authority of local officials and plant managers in industry, permitted a wide variety of small-scale enterprises in services and light manufacturing, and opened the economy to increased foreign trade and investment. The result has been a quadrupling of GDP since 1978. Measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis, China in 2004 stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US, although in per capita terms the country is still poor. Consider that China has a population of 1.3 billion people and a GDP of 7.2 Trillion (GDP per capita is $5,600)
Tawain, on the other hand, has a population of 22 million people and a GDP of 576 Billion (GDP per capita is $25,300)
So China, while having 60 times the population of Tawain has a GDP that is only 13 times greater.
The US, for comparison, has a population of almost 300 million, a GDP of 11.75 trillion and a GDP per capita of $40,000 (the highest in the world I believe)
CIA World Fact Book - http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
China still has a long way to go, but the trend is very clear.
Michael F Dickey
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