China: changes in the wind; as China continues its shift toward capitalism, young people are preparing for tomorrow's challenges. (World).

Liu Li (LEE-o LEE), 15, lives with her parents; three pigs, and a chicken in Peach Orchard Village, a town of 180 people in China's central Sichuan (see-CHWAHN) province. Wheat fields nearly touch the front door of Li's concrete house. A pile of hay that her parents have harvested sits in the courtyard. They will sell it to farmers who keep water buffalo.

Every morning Li gets up at 5:30 to make breakThst, usually noodles with hot chilies. Then she rides her bike to school, passing bamboo groves and lush green fields.

School is the center of Li's life. (In China, people say their family names first.) Except for weekends and holidays, she is in school for nine hours each day. Her main classes are Chinese literature, physics, English, and math. She likes English because she "can learn about foreign cultures."

Li is a good student. But she knows it will be difficult to reach her goal of becoming a doctor. With 1,800 students, her rural school is poor and has no computers. There isn't even heat: In the winter, Li wears a hat and gloves during class.

Li's parents earn the equivalent of a few hundred U.S. dollars a year. Because money is tight, Li spends only 12 cents a day to buy rice and vegetables for lunch. She has never traveled to Chengdu (CHUNG-doo), the capital of Sichuan province, even though it's just an hour away by bus.

Studying Hard

Li Wenliang (LEE when-LEE-ang), 11, lives halfway across the country in Beijing, not far from China's Great Wall. Wenliang's father is a lawyer. His mother studies the environmental effects of new construction projects.

Even in a rich city like Beijing, Wenliang's family is considered wealthy. After the Chinese New Year in February--which is China's most important holiday--they moved into a four-story house.

Wenliang goes to one of the best public schools in the city and, besides his regular classes, he studies piano and computer programming, and takes swimming lessons (the school has its own pool). His class recently took a field trip to the Yellow River to study the environment.

During the week, Wenliang lives in a school dormitory room with nine other boys. At night, after the lights go out, they tell stories. During the day, they like to play soccer.

Although Wenliang and Li have very different lives, there are similarities. Like Li, Wenliang spends most of his time studying.

He has classes between 8 in the morning and 8 at night. And like Li, Wenliang wants to become a doctor. He saw a TV show about AIDS in China and hopes to find a cure for the disease.

Building a Capitalist System

Before 1980, there wasn't such a gap between China's rich and poor. When the Chinese Communist Party seized power in 1949. the new leaders took land and money from the rich and tried to make everyone's income equal. They collectivized farming, making farmers work together to grow crops and share their profits.

For many reasons, the economic changes led to disaster. Food production dropped, and a famine between 1959 and 1962 killed at least 20 million people. At the same time, Chinese industry fell far behind the rest of the world.

In 1966, Mao Zedong (MAOW dzuh-DOHNG), the leader of the Communist Party, launched a movement he called the Cultural Revolution. The movement was meant in part to correct the economic imbalances of the past. But it was largely a way for Mao and his allies to centralize power. Mao launched a series of attacks on his enemies which resulted in terrible hardships for most Chinese people. In the end, the Cultural Revolution created problems that Mao's successors have struggled with ever since.

In the early 1 970s, China's leaders began to reach out to the West. After Mao's death in 1976, economic reforms became increasingly important as China sought to participate in the global economy. More and more, foreign companies were encouraged to set up factories in China.

This transition to a Chinese form of capitalism has led to economic growth. Billions of dollars have been invested in China, leading to new high-rise buildings, superhighways, and other ambitious projects. China now has the world's sixth-largest economy.

But while the government has been reforming China's economy, the political system has been slow to change. Citizens cannot elect their national leaders or protest government decisions. When Hu Jintao (WI-JO GIN-taow) became China's new leader last November, most Chinese didn't pay attention. The change didn't really affect them.

But China's "one child" policy, enacted in 1979, has gotten a lot of attention. Today, China has almost 1.3 billion people, five times the number of Americans. As Wenliang points out, "So many people is bad for the environment, and there's not enough work." Feeding everyone is also difficult.

Nonetheless, the government's one child" order has been hard to enforce. Traditionally, couples want sons, who they think will take care of them when they are old. Many risk punishment by having a second child when their first is a girl. Li has two older sisters. Her father paid a fine when she was born.

In rural areas like Li's, the order is .more relaxed now, but in cities, control is tight. The government offers better apartments, jobs, and schools to couples who do not have a second child.

The U.S. often criticizes China for not allowing more democracy and freedom. But good relations with Beijing are considered important. Washington wants China to help persuade North Korea, its neighbor, to stop building nuclear weapons.

And the U.S. wants to keep peace between China and Taiwan, the island nation that broke away from the Communist mainland. For decades, the U.S. recognized Taiwan as the only legitimate government of China.

Hoping for Good Luck

For Li and Wenliang, the government seems remote. They are more concerned with school, sports, and movies. Both are fans of Yao Ming, the NBA All-Star who plays for the Houston Rockets. They also like American films. Wenliang's favorite? Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.

The day before I visited Li, she and her family had celebrated the Chinese New Year. Their holiday dinner included pickled chicken feet and 'Ants Climbing a Tree," a Sichuan dish made from noodles, ground pork, and chili-pepper paste.

At midnight, they lit fireworks and exchanged hongbao, red bags with money inside. Hongbao are thought to bring good luck. Li hopes they will. As the banner on her family's door said: "May ten thousand things go as you wish."

Your Turn: THINK ABOUT IT

What challenges does Communist China face in introducing a capitalist economy?

RELATED ARTICLA: Year Abroad

For the past year, lake Curtis, 16, has been living in china as an American Field Service foreign-exchange student. A participant in a Pilot Pen/Scholastic program, Jake agreed to share his experiences with IS.

Shopping for Shoes

Yesterday I was reminded that I'm a foreigner--I went shopping for shoes. The largest pair they had was a size 9, and I wear an 11 or 12. The [store] owner even called other stores in the province. They all said they've never heard of a size that big. All these people in the store were laughing at me and just completely shocked by my feet.

At the Movies

Spider-Man is so much better in Chinese. But oh, what a crazy theater. It was really broken-down--small, hard chairs, stains on the walls, holes in the screen, etc. All 600 kids cried "Waaa" when Spider-Man discovered he could jump from building to building. And there was lots of blushing, staring at the floor, and eye covering whenever there were kissing scenes.

Learning Chinese Customs

Last night I thought I was doing everything wrong. My [host] mom criticized me for leaving water on the bathroom floor. Then my [host] sister came up behind me, called me "rotten egg, and gave me an evil stare. I stared back and went to my room. I thought they were angry at me, but I couldn't understand why. When my [host] dad got home, he explained that frowning or giving a dirty look is really offensive. He said he'd rather have me go home with an understanding of the Chinese people, customs, and manners, not just the language. Afterward, I felt much better. And my litde sister was happier, too.

China

China is the fourth-largest country in the world. Only Russia, Canada, and the U.S. have more area. About one fifth of the world's people live in China. The country is rapidly changing to a free-market economy. But its Communist government opposes efforts to bring democracy to China.

FACTS TO KNOW

AREA: 3,696,100 square miles, slightly smaller than the U.S.

POPULATION: 1,280,700,000; 38% urban.

GOVERNMENT: Communist state. Hu Jintao became party leader in 2002, and China's President in March.

ECONOMY: China's economy is one of the world's largest. Yet, more than half of the world's countries have a larger per capita GDP *. Manufacturing and mining make up the largest single part of China's GDP.

PER CAPITA GDP: $3,600. RELIGIONS: Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. China's government discourages religious worship.

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Mandarin Chinese is spoken by 70% of the people.

LITERACY: Males, 90%; females, 73%.

LIFE EXPECTANCY: Males, 69 years; females, 73 years.

* The value of all products produced by the country in a year, divided by the population. (GDP stands for gross domestic product; per capita means per person.)

QUESTIONS

1. What is the capital of China? __________________________

2. The Great Wall begins near what body of water in the east? ______________________

3. What event will Beijing host in 2008? ____________________________

4. What is the population density of areas shown in purple? ________________________

5. Why is the population density lower in western China than in eastern areas? _______________________________________

6. How many people live in Xian? ____________________________________

7. How far is it in miles from Hong Kong to Kunming? _____________________

8. What city is closest to 30[degrees]N, 91[degrees]E? ________________________

9. What country ruled Hong Kong until 1997? ______________________________

10. What island off the coast of China is ruled by anti-Communist Chinease? __________________________________

1. Beijing

2. The Bo Gulf

3. The Olympic Games 

4. More than 520 persons per sq mi

5. Western China is filled with mountains and deserts, and it has few large cities.

6. 6 to 10 million

7. About 750 miles

8. Lhasa

9. The United Kingdom

10. Taiwan