Trip to China

I was with the 8th China Synergy Programme, visiting Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Xian, Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai from June 30 until July 16, 2007.

The trip was an eye-opening in many ways. Firstly, I have truly experience the rapid growing metropolitan of Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. Without doubt, the public transportation of Hong Kong was well-managed and user-friendly, way beyond my expectation of an efficient public transportation system. On top of that, the opportunity to be in Hong Kong as this Special Administrative Region celebrate its 10th Anniversary was indeed memorable. The fireworks display on July 1, 2007 for more than 30 minutes was simply superb.

Glancing on the development of Beijing and Shanghai, without doubt, these cities are certainly on track in preparing itself for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Shanghai World Expo. The infrastructure development has been remarkable but there are still rooms for further improvement, perhaps when the big event draw closer. The Mass Transit, public bus system and even the airport system can be further improved.

However, throughout the trip, a puzzling thought kept tinkling in my mind. As we know, China is facing a problem of growing disparity between urban and rural area. The disparity has indeed grew worse since the last decade. With the rapid development in Beijing and Shanghai due to these international events, will the disparity eventually grow further to the point of no return? Furthermore, it seems that the opportunity costs for the development is indeed huge. Pollution, congestion and increasing social ills are among the obvious problems resulting from rapid development.

On a positive note, I have the opportunity to visit some of the tourism highlights of China. Visiting the Terracotta Warriors in Xian; Great Wall and Palace Museum in Beijing; the Peak in Hong Kong; the Bund in Shanghai; West Lake in Hangzhou has indeed been an amazing experience. Without doubt, the wonders and the beauty of these places were almost indescribable by words. It was these visits that made the tiring trip memorable with a satisfying feeling.

In addition, the trip also enabled me to meet many outstanding Chinese youth from all over the world. The opportunity to learn from others is indeed valuable. Furthermore, through the interaction between Chinese of different background, I reaffirmed my identity sense of being a Malaysian Chinese.