Trains, cranes and serious growing pains

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Have you ever had the experience of driving in a major city REALLY early in the morning before the traffic starts? It makes you realize how wonderful the place could be if it weren't for all the congestion.

That's what Chris, Jim and I experienced when we caught a cab from our hotels to the Beijing Train Station at 6 am today. The extra delightful experience of the Chinese capital continued when we arrived at the ultra modern, clean station full of attractive stores and restaurants -- Chris was even able to get his signature espresso quad shot at Starbucks. My amazement at what the Chinese have built continued as our comfortable, high-speed train pulled out and quickly and nearly silently hit 300 kilometers per hour. Amtrak is pathetic by comparison.

Once outside the city, however, the fantasy began to wear thin as I realized that what I had hoped was morning mist was a thick grey blanket of smog. It followed us throughout the whole five hour trip past miles of agricultural land and through several cities with innumerable cranes erecting innumerable high rise buildings.

It was truly depressing to see so clearly the price China has paid for developing at breakneck speed with inadequate environmental protections. And it's not only the skies that are polluted. News reports are full of stories of impure water, adulterated foods, mysterious die-offs of thousand of pigs and, grabbing the biggest headlines, the bird flu outbreak that has killed dozens and kept me from letting a single piece of poultry pass my lips while here.

I truly hope that the Chinese can figure out how to keep growing at the rate they need to satisfy the needs of their people and clean up their environment. I'm no ecological engineer, but it seems obvious that they need to figure that out pronto or face horrendous consequences.

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