Brian Greenspun on how China has been able to reclaim some of its cities

Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006 | 7:40 a.m.

Editor's note: Brian Greenspun spent more than two weeks in China in October, traveling the country as part of a study tour conducted by the Brookings Institution. In a series of columns, he is offering his thoughts on what he has learned about one of the world's most intriguing and powerful countries.

Is the Sleeping Giant awake?

The Brookings Institution is the nation's largest and oldest independent think tank. As part of its opening of a research center with one of China's premier universities, a study tour was organized for its trustees, supporters, scholars and colleagues. As a trustee for the past six years, I jumped at the chance to see what all the fuss was about.

I saw it. There is good reason for the fuss. What was once referred to as a Sleeping Giant is wide awake and making the kind of noises to which the rest of the world should pay heed.

When last I wrote, we were in the most populated city in the world. With more than 32 million people in its urban and suburban areas, and an environmental nightmare that threatens not only the city, the country and probably the planet itself, Chongqing has big problems. But as in most cases, the problems provide opportunities. And Chongqing is no different.

Some of China's best minds have been assigned to Chongqing - they do that in China, assign people - to deal with its environmental problems, most of which have been fueled by growth.

Let's back up a moment. China is different from the United States, in case that hasn't been clear.

It has a one-party system of government. It has a 5,000-year-old culture, compared to our 200 years as a country. It is an agrarian-based economy that is just beginning to move toward an industrialized society, with all the problems that entails. Think about the growth issues the United States had to endure from the mid-19th century through the entire 20th century with a population of only 100 million to just under 300 million people. Now think of China, with its 1.3 billion people.

I have written that number several times in this series, and just imagine how many times we heard about that many people throughout our trip, whether it was from government leaders, business leaders or ordinary people trying to explain how much China wants to be a part of this new world it is just getting to know. And how the number 1.3 billion complicates that transition.

Those differences are substantial, and coupled with the fact that China is the only Third World and now-developing country that is also one of the world's superpowers, you have a unique blend of circumstances that says this is a first for planet Earth. If the country's transition isn't done right - and we have to tread softly and wisely because China owns all of those nuclear bombs and much of our debt - it could spell disaster for us all.

So, back to Chongqing and its opportunities. The best way for me to describe what I believe is happening there is to point to Beijing.

When I was in China's capital 10 years ago, Beijing was an environmental disaster with what looked like little chance for survival, let alone growth.

It was a city in which millions of people would ride their bicycles out of town early in the morning and, like clockwork, ride them back into town as night fell. Bicycles in a jet-age world!

Bicycles were the mode of transportation and there were very few cars. Hotels were few and far between and the good ones were barely habitable.

There were a few retail stores for tourists but there was very little on the shelves. But that didn't matter because there were very few tourists and the locals couldn't afford to shop anyway.

In the southeast part of China was the city of Shanghai. Ten years ago Shanghai was the most modern city in China and the economic hub of the country. The hotels were modern, skyscrapers were just starting to grow and business was the engine that drove what we knew as Communist China toward a capitalism that looked like it might rival the West.

Today Shanghai is off the charts. Its skyline makes Manhattan's look boring and it is just beginning to grow! And, it has a mag-lev train. Twenty miles in seven minutes. They conceived, planned and built it in five years. How long have we been talking about a high-speed train between Las Vegas and Southern California?

Beijing, which 10 years ago was going nowhere, is preparing at light speed for the 2008 Olympics. It is a time that China intends to show itself as a modernizing country, fully capable of the kind of trappings that define modern capitalistic societies - buildings to the sky, businesses that just don't stop and a quality of life that will have doubled and tripled and doubled again in a matter of just a few years.

The main streets in Beijing are among the most modern in the world, as are the hotels, office buildings and condominiums that reach higher and higher with one more beautiful than the last.

And the architecture? Unbelievable. The kind that would make Chicago jealous.

And the retail? It looks like Fifth Avenue, Michigan Avenue and Rodeo Drive on steroids. And here's the great part: Those stores are not for the tourists. They are full of Chinese people who represent a burgeoning middle class aspiring for most things Western and fully capable of paying for them.

So what about Chongqing? It is where Beijing was 10 years ago and, assuming the government keeps to its plan of cleaning up the environment, it will be unstoppable and it will be staggering in its beauty and its accomplishment.

Could China use some help? Does it need U.S. technology to make an impossible task somewhat more possible and more certain of success? Why is this happening and how did China get here so fast? And what should we be doing to help?