Thanks for replying and for your POV Orwell, I am not an economist ... my training is as an historian, I look upon myself as an observer of human nature. Bit like a magpie really, I pick up bits and pieces and store them away for reflection ;-) What I said earlier about the pride of the Chinese people in their history is, I believe, partly responsible for the massive growth in infrastructure. Ordinary Chinese people are on the move throughout the country like never before and they are doing things that were not possible ten, twenty years ago, when they had to seek permission to leave their village. For the grandparents, let alone the parents, of todays young people the idea that they could just go and visit Beijing or Shanghai or The Great (Long) Wall or the Terracotta Warriors was a pipe dream, unattainable.
Now they can, and they have embraced the idea with enormous enthusiasm. Planes, trains, buses are absolutely packed with Chinese tourists, they run to schedule, and the security checks are the tightest I have come across. Four is standard for a domestic flight. The regional airlines are impressive, new planes, cheerful and polite cabin crew. I flew three, China Southern, Hainan and Sichuan, which was my favourite, from the fourth highest airport in the world. The gov decided they needed an airport to service Jiuzhaigou so they just chopped the top off a mountain. We were at that remote national park in northern Sichuan province for four days. The park has 10,000-15,000 visitors (mainly Chinese) per day! Oh, and those 15,000 had 15,000 selfie sticks as well . I thought Australians were obsessed with selfies till I saw the Chinese.
I will stop rabbiting on now ;-)
(20min delay)