My China Visit - some impressions

It all started in 2000, with my first visit to Shanghai, PRC. I was terribly upset on returing to India to see the condition of buildings, roads and the general hygiene. How is that China could progress so much (Shanghai was and is, almost similar to Singapore and Hong Kong) we in India cannot. We are not less intelligent or hard working than the Chinese. We have enough funds to improve our infrastructure; of course the Chines have a lot more reserves. But I can not help getting into a sort of depression on landing in Mumbai/Delhi. We cannot compare the facilities and architecture of Shanghai, Nangjing or Beijing Airprot with those we find in the "improved" airports at Delhi and Mumbai. One of the reasons that I could attribute to the poor infrastructure that we have in spite of crores being spent to improve them is our so called "Democracy"...the rule of the mediocres. The other is "widespread corruption" (may be an element of Chalta Hai also contributes, but it is less compared to corruption). Here are some photographs that I had taken in the recent past in China....see for yourself:


Great Wall of China (is that Allen Border ?)....near Beijing


The Forbidden City, Beijing

The above two are frequented by lakhs of visitors everyday...but maintained clean and neat.



The above is NOT the picture of Shanghai; it is WuHan an interior city. I cannot imagine any of our cities coming anywhere near this, with neat roads and manicured plants as road dividers.



It appears that most of the cities of China are mini-Shanghai. The above picture of Xiamen was taken from the Island across the sea...I don't to need to say any further than to show you the skyline.




The above picture was taken by me from my room (a guest room provided by our factory, located inside our factory) in Songzi, a small town in the Hubei Province, PRC. I cannot imagine such a road in say, even, Ahmednagar, which is much bigger than Songzi.



The above picture was taken at the Gulangye island off Xiamen...this is a street full of shops....again clean and neat....in this island no petrol or diesel driven vehicle is allowed.



I enjoyed my "bargaining" here...the above picture shows the market on the foot of the Great Wall of China near Beijing. See the cleanliness

I can go on posting more such photos....then my frustration goes up...why not India progress....at least catch up with China if not overtake it....I don't think it will happen in my life-time....probably the younger generation may take India to greater heights...probably we were a generation without ambition (Chalta Hai)!

Beware...I intend to post more such photos from all over....