Term Paper at TJU Shanghai

Brief Introduction

As globalization these days is thriving and therefore markets converging it is vital to understand the development of different involved countries from the present perspective as well as the retrospective. That is why fruitful future progresses can possibly only be foreseen through the knowledge of former times. As this topic is too extensive the elaboration will start with a brief historical review of the Era of Reconstruction mainly influenced by Deng Xiaoping beginning in 1976.

Not much attention will be paid to the Mao Zedong Era including the Great Leap Forward which is regarded as the first try to transform China mainland from a primary agrarian economy into a modern and industrialized country. Rather the Era of Reconstruction under Deng Xiaoping and its partial economical opening-up process towards the rest of the World and especially towards the United States in the beginning will be taken into consideration.

As China currently is on the brink of transformation from an elongated workbench as an emerging country to an advanced country it is essential to foresee the further development of the potential China of tomorrow by applying the knowledge from the last decades. The investigation of former economical achievements and upcoming challenges of China’s economy will be consulted to find a proper conclusion for the recent development.

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Case for Understanding China Today & Foreseeing China Tomorrow

(2009 | copyright reserved)

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Shanghai 上海 > Xi’an 西安 > Kunming 昆明 (Yunnan Province)

Meant to be my last bigger trip within the Borders of the Peoples Republic I happened to visit the Ancient Capital City Xi’an followed by an old town hopping in the very south west of China called Yunnan Province. The trip ought to last 10 days before we came back to Shanghai on the 25th January. It was a quite important day for the Chinese as it marks the beginning of the Year of the Ox and therefore the start of Chinese New Year itself. Coincidently I’m born in the year of the ox which returns every 12 years, as there are 12 different Chinese zodiac signs.

So Felix, the other Austrian from Vienna EBA, Greg and David, two Belgiums, and me went to Xi’an first of all to see the world famous Terra Cotta Warriors that had been discovered by local people during digging a well. Although it was really impressive I expected slightly too much of it. Nevertheless we spent two nice sightseeing days there fully packed with Chinese tradition and characteristics. It was remarkable that somehow all of us had the feeling that the Chinese language was easier understandable in Xi’an in comparison to Shanghai where the local dialect sometimes is giving us a hard time.

西安 (Xi’an)

Additionally the dumplings there were 很好吃 (very delicious) owing to being Xi’an’s most famous culinary output. On Sunday evening we took the plane to Kunming serving as the capital city of Yunnan province which’s south-western part counts to the Mekong region.

昆明 (Kunming)

Dali 大理

As Kunming only served as a hub for us in order to reach the northern located old towns, the Belgium- (in the meantime expanded by Chloe and Laure) and the Austrian crew left to Dali by bus after having spent only one night in Kunming.

大理 (Dali)

The upcoming two days were really enjoyable as on the first day we went to a huge waterfall on horsebacks (a rather new experience to me ;) and explored the local Erhai lake by bikes on the next day.

Several little villages gave way to the quite stretched lake which was a great experience for all of us.

Lijiang 丽江

Arriving in Lijiang after another bus ride from our last destination Dali was quite nice for us, as it is probably THE MOST ADMIRED old town among Chinese people. We checked-in our hostel in the heart of the more than 800 years old town and immediately went off to the hill of Lijiang to get a first impression and overview of this lovely place. It convinces of its nice waterways, different architecture and the population of the local ethnic group – the Naxi.

丽江 (Lijiang)

The Tiger Leaping Gorge is a canyon on the Yangtze River that lies 60km north of Lijiang and is surrounded by a few more than 5.000m mountains. We mainly went to see the famous rock, where according to a legend the tiger leaped to the other side in order to escape the chase of a hunter.

虎跳峡 (Tiger Leaping Gorge)