It’s half a world away and the excitement here is palpable. The Chinese are proud — proud that they’ll soon have the opportunity to showcase their country to the world with the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

China is queing up for its time to shine. Infrastructure projects are being completed at a breakneck pace. Just last year, the road to the Great Wall was in great need of repair. Today it has been improved to a modern highway, and businesses are being built along the way to accomodate the tourists — who are sure to make the extra two-hour trek by taxi to this wonder of the world.

The roads here are impeccable and cleanliness in Shanghai and Beijing is unparalleled, compared to cities of similar size in the US and other countries. American travelers would be well-advised that Chinese culture requires negotiation for nearly everything and merchants will happily charge you up to ten times what they charge their countrymen. Negotiations for tangible goods often begin at prices as high as 5 times what Americans would normally pay in their own country but a skillful negotiator can usually get the same products for nearly half of what they would pay in the states which would still allow for the merchant to make a modest profit. Traveling to malls or places of commerce, more so in Shanghai than in Beijing, can push ones limits and the faint of heart should avoid these places.

Transportation for foreigners here is primarily by taxi, and cabs are plentiful and inexpensive. Unlike America, the fare is the fare and tips are neither required nor appear to be appreciated. Don’t even think about renting a car as most Americans would be horrified by the Chinese driving techniques, which are governed by, not so much rules, but suggestions of the road. Those lines which separate lanes — they’re often straddled by aggressive taxi drivers who are simply looking for quicker ways to get their passengers on to their destination so they can pick up their next paying customer. Despite this, there are surprisingly fewer accidents than in America, and when there is an accident it is very minor. A word of advice — leave the driving to the professionals.

The currency, the RMB, also known as the yuan, is fixed by the government. There are currently 7.6 RMB to the dollar here, and to give you a sense of how inexpensive things can be here, one can get a bottle of water for 2 RMB or a taxi ride to the airport an hour away for about 140 RMB. Try grabbing an hour long taxi ride in any US city for around $20 and you’ll get old just fantasizing about those prices. This is not to say that gas here is cheap — it is expensive. Where the costs are cut is in the labor, not the fuel to drive the taxi.

Hotels that cater to foreigners are as expensive, or more so, than American hotels. The cost of hotel meals are comparable in price to their stateside counterparts.

American writing, or what would more aptly be termed as English words strung together in non-sensical phrases, is commonplace and has made its way onto t-shirts, popular clothing, and even fronts of stores hoping to cater to Americans.

If a word describes the Chinese attitude toward Americans it is, at least for now, “loved.” The government-controlled media is friendly to Americans and so are the people. Our dollars, and consequently our national debt, have benefited the Chinese. American fiscal policy, which puts little value on saving and much on the “spend it now” attitude which dominates our culture, does have a face, and that face is China. A country that, as little as twenty years ago, could have been considered third world, is now an equal to the US in many ways; in some ways, China has surpassed us.

Cranes and construction dot the landscape in China’s two largest cities, and the Beijing that you see today will certainly not be the Beijing you see a year from now. Development is happening at a breakneck pace and, as the population rises out of what was once a culture of poverty, pride is evident in the Chinese.