The picture in rural China is probably very different, but in the cities, most people look like they

On my recent trip to China it struck me how ultra-modern the east coast has become. Everything is built on a gigantic scale, beating even America san francisco vacation home rentals when it comes to size, and city traffic has surged san francisco vacation home rentals as wealthy Chinese splash out on BMWs and Audis. A fair reflection of the fact that China is set to knock the US off its pedestal and take over as the world's biggest economy in the next five years.
The train stations are massive modern terminals that even a foreigner without a word of Mandarin will find easy to navigate. The trains run on time, naturally, and it takes only four hours to do the 750 mile (1,207km) journey from Nanjing in southern China to Beijing. The train whizzes past rice paddies at an average speed of 301 km an hour - compare that to the UK's top train speed of 125 mph or 201 km an hour on the East Coast line, and an average speed of 180 km per hour.
Shanghai, despite its tower blocks, seemed very livable with its tree-lined avenues and cosmopolitan outlook, whereas it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale and air pollution of Beijing. Most of the recent buildings in the capital look like they are several sizes too big and Tiananmen Square is just enormous - opposite the equally massive Forbidden City, whose 980 buildings were constructed in the early fifteenth san francisco vacation home rentals century. China has a long history of building monumental things - the Great Wall measures 8,851 km, or 5,500 miles.
My trip was confined to China's east coast and even from the train I didn't spot a single peasant in this vast country (although the taxi drivers who didn't speak a word of English might have been recent migrants from rural areas).
The picture in rural China is probably very different, but in the cities, most people look like they belong to the country's burgeoning middle class with rapidly growing western san francisco vacation home rentals tastes. They've started snapping up western goods from Gucci handbags to Marks Spencer biscuits, baked beans and even teabags. Indeed China has just overtaken the US to become san francisco vacation home rentals the world's No 1 market for grocery shopping, so western supermarkets and food companies are queuing up for their slice of the Chinese market. From 'Made in China' san francisco vacation home rentals to 'Sold in China'?
After years of runaway growth, China's booming economy overtook Japan to become the world's second-biggest economy in 2010, and now has the US in its sights. Its growth is mainly fuelled by a long-running manufacturing boom driven by a flurry of infrastructure building. Awash with cash, Chinese firms and sovereign wealth funds have been pouring their money into British companies ranging from Thames Water to Weetabix, bespoke suitmaker Gieves Hawkes, Harvey Nichols and Pringle.
san francisco vacation home rentals It is increasingly likely that China's currency, the renminbi or yuan, will replace the dollar as the world's reserve san francisco vacation home rentals currency at some point. In a taste of things to come, Japan and China started trading their currencies directly san francisco vacation home rentals on the inter-bank foreign exchange markets in Tokyo and Shanghai at the start of this month - bypassing the US. It is the first time that China has allowed san francisco vacation home rentals a major currency other than the dollar to trade directly with the yuan.
Knight Frank Citi Private Bank forecast in their latest wealth report that the Indian economy will reach $85.97 trillion by 2050 while Chinese GDP would be $80.02 trillion. The US is seen far behind with a GDP of just $39.07 trillion. However, the world's fastest-growing economy in coming decades will be Nigeria with 8.5% growth, according to the report.
"This dynamic group includes many cities that are not household names today: Linyi, Kelamayi and Guiyang in China; Surat and Nagpur in India; Concepcion and Belem in Latin America," the report said. It's all change then.
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san francisco vacation home rentals what is sad about this is that China is repeating all the mistakes that countries which have 'developed' first did. they are trying to imitate Western san francisco vacation home rentals models of economic development without any critical thinking. these models are unsustainable and studies show that don't lead to increased happiness. so good luck to China, they will need it.