We went to China last year for Christmas last year and one of the side-trips we took was to Xian to see the Terracotta Army. To get there we took a bullet train, which gave us an opportunity to see a lot of the Chinese countryside that we wouldn’t otherwise get to see. A couple of things stood out to me on that train ride: 1) there is a lot of housing capacity already built and still being built in a lot of cities. As you watch the video, note the number of cranes on the top of buildings, indicating new construction. 2) industrial haze is omnipresent. What looks like fog in the video is pollution and it’s present even in a lot of rural areas. The price for a massive leap forward in industrial production.
Further reading/viewing on China:
Tyler Cowen on the Thucydides Trap and North Korea MarginalRevolution.com
Bill Kristol interviews Tyler Cowen “America finally has a peer country…” Youtube
China’s One Belt One Road Initiative Wikipedia.com
Western contempt for China turns to panic Asiatimes.com