I got an opportunity of visiting China, on a business trip for about ten days. Initially I was slightly hesitant to travel alone because of so called problems like communication and non- availability of vegetarian food.  But now I feel that I would have missed a great opportunity of my life, if I had said “No” to this offer.

 

We all know that China is a big country with world’s largest population. She is India’s one of the adjacent neighbours.

 

Though our political relations still leave scope for improvement we have good business with China – both directly and through agents in other South Asian countries.

 

Both India and China are two great nations and emerging economy of future.  Many Indians and Chinese professionals are working together in developed countries like USA, UK etc. holding prestigious positions.

 

Before landing in China, I was under the impression that the streets would be overcrowded with people some of whom will be poverty stricken; cities would be unclean city having problems of congestion, traffic jam [as I knew people prefer to use bicycles], pollution etc similar to what we find in densely populated cities in India.

 

However after disembarking in Shanghai airport my views changed completely. Shanghai Airport is about 30 km away from the city, is very organized and clean without any congestion. It took hardly 20 minutes to get out of the Airport after immigration/ custom and baggage clearance.  People preferred to travel from the airport to the city center by magnetic train which plies every 10 minutes. It is a very high-speed magnetic train and is the fastest mode of transportation as it reaches the destination within 10 to 15 minutes. The fare is also very reasonable.

 

We opted to travel by TAXI, as we were not versed with the local stations and also not knowing the distance of our hotel from the local station.  The temperature was 38 ⁰C outside but the heat effect was subdued due to greenery in the surroundings. We often make statement that Mumbai should be made as Shanghai but we are far behind.

 

The description of China in brief as perceived by me could be illustrated as under:

 

Cleanliness: Despite dense population the cities are clean. There has been no exposed garbage at any place. No dirt or dust is spotted even on the roads. . Everywhere it has been a clean environment.

 

Plantation: Exposed land is covered with greenery all over .The plants are watered, trimmed and shaped regularly. Flowers are blooming at many places. It is indeed a beautiful sight when viewed from the running car.

 

Roads and Traffic: Roads are smooth without any pit holes.  Each road is having eight divider lanes with flyovers to connect different parts of the city. The eight lanes consist of footpath, lane for two wheelers, parking lane, lane for heavy vehicles and last two lanes for cars, jeeps etc.  The traffic is easy going. Every body complies with the traffic rules irrespective of presence/absence of traffic police or hidden camera. Once at night at about 11 pm we were returning to our hotel. On one of the crossings we faced a RED light. There was no other vehicle on any side of the road. Further there was no policeman or hidden camera to monitor compliance to the traffic rules. Yet the taxi driver did not cross the traffic signal. We resumed our movement only after green signal.

 

The countryside and town planning: We travelled about 2000 Km in and around China. The countryside is well planned and beautiful. Colored houses are of uniform shape, size and architectural design. No slum or so called juggi-jhopri or encroachment is in sight anywhere.

 

Independent clusters have been developed to avoid congestion Each cluster is independent in terms of school, play grounds, hospital, market, petrol pumps, local transportation and other amenities. These areas are not dependent on the main city.

 

Work places like industry, offices are also nearby and any body can reach to his/her work place in 15 minutes. Bicycle is the common mode of travel for going to work place.  Fuel driven transport is used occasionally when required thus reducing unnecessary congestion and traffic problems. This also helps in saving expenditure on fuels and keeping the environment free from pollution.

 

This is the way different areas within the country have been developed.

 

Power: Every town has its own power generation plant depending on the requirement and is also connected to the common power grid. They can not even think of any power failure as in that case every thing will come to stand still.

 

Discipline: The people are self-disciplined and follow the basic civic rules of a developed society, to maintain the environment, cleanliness etc.

 

Nationality and Enthusiasm: People were full of enthusiasm and nationalism. Every body wants to contribute to the Nation building within the available opportunity and resources.

 

Social Responsibilities: It is the responsibility of each individual to look after their parents. One child norm [male or female] is strictly followed to extract the specified benefit from the government. If there are more than one child, the benefits are not available. There are uniform civic rules which are implemented without any discrepancy. Work culture is progressing giving equal opportunity to both men and women to work and earn.

 

 Image of India: Overall image of Indians in China is positive. The level of education, developments in IT industry, and policy of liberalisation is highly appreciated. Our visit coincided with the decision of Indian government for allowing trade though Sikkim border. This has a further positive impact on common Chinese. They wish to develop more and more trade ties with India.

 

To summarise people in India always say that the western world, Singapore in Asia developed because of smaller size of the countries coupled with lower density of population. I also had the same opinion till the time I got exposed to China. China is developing despite the problem of size and dense population. The progress of development is also very commendable.

 

They are much ahead in defence, space research, consumer goods, electronics, IT, Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals. Our resources are not very different from that of China; still we do not have such significant visible progress. The progress of change is too slow. A few of our cities are under tremendous pressure whereas rests of the areas are not developing at all. If we create infrastructure and give opportunity to people, decentralize our operations, things can be improved and targets could be achieved. China’s problem today is the barrier of language and to overcome that they have made English as the second language. The day is not far off when China will be a super power and we will be left far behind.

 

Just giving slogans that India would be a world power in the year 2020 will not make any headway. We must plan and take concrete steps if we really have that vision, wish and will.