CHINA- FROM HUMILIATION TO DOMINATION

BEFORE 1820: CHINA had 38 % of the population of the world and generated 35% of total work output. China and India together accounted for more than half of the world’s output.

The 19Th Century was the century of HUMILATION

The 20th Century was the century of RESTAURATION

The 21th Century is the century of DOMINANCE

The 200 years of economic stagnation was an aberration to correct

CHINA is really not an EMERGING COUNTRY, it  is fighting back to get its status of first world power it enjoyed before 1820

WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT CHINA : THE PEOPLE

The size of China is mind-boggling: 1.3 billion people live here - that is one fifth of the world's population.

There are 160 cities in China with population of more than a million.

There are 36 cities in Europe with population of more than a million.

There are 9 cities in the US with population of more than a million.

China is a country with staggering potential. China is increasingly powerful, increasingly mobile and increasingly developed.

It is entirely inevitable that they will, to a large extent they already are, exerting their influence right around the globe.

DEVELOPMENT ZONES IN CHINA

There are also Special Economic Zones (SEZ, 经济特区) set up to encourage development and foreign investment with tax concessions and other government measures. These began in 1980 as a provincial government initiative supported by Deng Xiaoping. SEZs tend to be prosperous, have large expatriate communities, and have more Western restaurants and facilities. They are:

▪   The original four: Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou in Guangdong and Xiamen in Fujian

▪   The entire island province of Hainan

▪   The Pudong district of Shanghai

Development in these areas has been phenomenal. In 1978, Shenzhen (next to Hong Kong) and Zhuhai (next to Macau) were groups of fishing villages, with a population of a few hundred thousand each. By 2008, Shenzhen had a population of 10 million and Zhuhai approached 2 million. The other SEZs have also undergone enormous changes. Pudong was mostly farmland in 1990, but now has more skyscrapers than New York.

There are also many other areas where investment is encouraged. The national government started a program in 1984 that opened up 14 coastal cities, and all the capitals of inland provinces or autonomous regions, for investment. There are also many provincial, city, county and township-level economic development programs. However, the SEZs remain the most developed areas with the most advanced administrative systems for investment and spurring economic development

CHINA - LIST OF PROVINCES

China's system of political geography differs somewhat from that in other countries. Most of it is broken up into provinces (省), but there are several other geographic units of the same hierarchical rank as provinces:

▪   Various ethnic groups have autonomous regions (自治区), although their autonomy is far from complete. For the traveler, these can generally be thought of as provinces, but in political discussions the distinction may be important.

▪   Four of the larger municipalities (市) are not part of provinces, but independent entities whose leaders report directly to Beijing. The smallest of these, Tianjin, has a population well over 10 million. The largest, Chongqing, has over 30 million residents.

▪   Hong Kong and Macau are special administrative regions (SARs， 特别行政区). These are former colonies — Hong Kong British and Macau Portuguese — that rejoined China in the late 90s. Their economies and distinct political systems are allowed to flourish under separate regulatory regimes from the Mainland under the slogan "One country, two systems". The SARs have their own currencies, issue their own visas, and elect their own representative assemblies through a combination of direct and indirect representation.

▪    

A full list of province-level divisions is:

Province — capital ▪   Anhui (安徽) — Hefei (合肥) ▪   Fujian (福建) — Fuzhou (福州) ▪   Gansu (甘肃) — Lanzhou (兰州) ▪   Guangdong (广东) — Guangzhou (广州) ▪   Guizhou (贵州) — Guiyang (贵阳) ▪   Hainan (海南) — Haikou (海口) ▪   Hebei (河北) — Shijiazhuang (石家庄) ▪   Heilongjiang (黑龙江) — Harbin (哈尔滨) ▪   Henan (河南) — Zhengzhou (郑州) ▪   Hubei (湖北) — Wuhan (武汉) ▪   Hunan (湖南) — Changsha (长沙) ▪   Jiangsu (江苏) — Nanjing (南京) ▪   Jiangxi (江西) — Nanchang (南昌) ▪   Jilin (吉林) — Changchun (长春) ▪   Liaoning (辽宁) — Shenyang (沈阳) ▪   Qinghai (青海) — Xining (西宁) ▪   Shaanxi (陕西) — Xi'an (西安) ▪   Shandong (山东) — Jinan (济南) ▪   Shanxi (山西) — Taiyuan (太原) ▪   Sichuan (四川) — Chengdu (成都) ▪   Yunnan (云南) — Kunming (昆明) ▪   Zhejiang (浙江) — Hangzhou (杭州) Autonomous region — capital ▪   Guangxi Zhuang (广西壮族) — Nanning (南宁) ▪   Inner Mongolia (内蒙古) — Hohhot (呼和浩特) ▪   Ningxia Hui (宁夏回族) — Yinchuan (银川) ▪   Xinjiang Uighur (新疆维吾尔族) — Urumqi (乌鲁木齐) ▪   Tibet (西藏) — Lhasa (拉萨) Municipalities ▪   Beijing Municipality (北京) ▪   Chongqing Municipality (重庆) ▪   Shanghai Municipality (上海) ▪   Tianjin Municipality (天津) Special Administrative Regions ▪   Hong Kong (香港) ▪   Macau (澳门) Taiwan is a special case. At the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, the Communists held most of China and the defeated Nationalists held only Taiwan, the Pescadores and a few islands in the South China Sea. That situation continues to this day; Taiwan has had a separate government for 60 years. While listed as a province in the P.R.C., from the practical traveler's point of view, it is a separate country with its own visas, currency and so on.