The fast lane: Chinese society moves from calligraphy to cell phones in a compressed time frame.

The visitor to China can reach conclusions about Chinese society based on one week there no better than a one-week journey to the United States can provide a complete portrait of America to an outsider.

All one can rely on are impressions of what is seen, heard or otherwise sensed and the opinions of others also visiting or, better yet, who live there.

But just a glimpse of China, based on a one-week trip to a handful of cities, demonstrates remarkable contrasts (between city and village, modern and ancient) and a pace of change that is staggering.

THE CITY THAT TRADE BUILT. Through most of the Cold War years, Hong Kong thrived as a capitalist banking and manufacturing city on the doorstep of isolated China and embattled Southeast Asia.

The former British Crown Colony is still an economic hub and a free-trade zone, several years after reverting to Chinese rule in 1997. Less well known than Hong Kong but just a few miles across the (still monitored) border lies the city of Shenzhen.

This former fishing village was designated as a Special Economic Zone in 1980 and has seen its population increase exponentially ever since. It is now home to 5 million people, an active stock exchange and an economy and transportation infrastructure that would probably be unrecognizable to someone who had not visited the city since 1980.

Residential dwellings in older parts of the city did not exceed seven floors high, as elevators and electrical wiring were not even designed into the structures originally.

No such limitations face the new office and apartment towers rising in Shenzhen, which are beginning to lure companies and residents away from Hong Kong's more expensive neighborhoods.

A highway system slices through the city and radiates not only back to Hong Kong, but also to the growing city of Guangzhou (once known to Westerners as Canton) and the manufacturing complexes found throughout Guangdong province in southern China.

Shenzhen and other cities of Guangdong province have reaped the benefit of the decision by Chinese leaders in the late 1970s to welcome outside investment as a way to spur the nation's economy.

A tour of these cities and the surrounding countryside provides startling examples of how dramatic the transition can be from an agrarian economy to an urban one.

BEASTS OF BURDEN. Prior to the opening of the Chinese economy in 1978, China may have been most curious to Westerners as a place where mechanization seemed largely absent.

Water buffaloes still tilled the soil, and even urban dwellers used bicycles in far greater numbers than motorized vehicles.

A visitor in 2005 would still find some of those pre-conceptions reinforced, especially in the agricultural sector. Bordering the clothing and toy factory complexes in China, farmlands continue to be cultivated using hand tools and water buffaloes.

Motorized tractors or other equipment are rarely seen, as farming techniques do not appear to have changed greatly with the economic reforms. Remote villages with unpaved roads, clothes being washed in running streams and small fields being tilled by hand provide a stark contrast to the bustle of Shenzhen or Beijing.

But choices in life for the millions of peasants who work the fields have changed. The manufacturing complexes of Southern China have created millions of jobs, with workers drawn largely from surrounding villages.

In many cases, however, these workers are not commuting in the traditional sense. Rather, many live in company housing on corporate-owned land adjacent to the apparel or product factory where they work.

The company town may seem like a throw-back to Americans, but the use of the concept--much like the frenzied construction of new housing and multi-lane highways--helps demonstrate the similarities of China today with America in the first two-thirds of the 20th century.

In terms of technology, mechanization and electronic communication are advancing rapidly in China.

A visitor to Shenzhen would see relatively few bicycles compared to the number of cars on the road.

Similarly, newspapers and magazines are more plentiful, radios and music players are becoming common, and the cell phone is ubiquitous in Chinas cities.

Economically, Chinese citizens are beginning to enjoy choices. Whether these choices will be broadened to include civic decision-making power is a matter being studied by all those who conduct business with China.

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK. Tian Tan Park in Beijing brings together traces of the Maoist principals enforced by China's government since 1949 and the free market reforms introduced in the past 25 years.

The park is a gathering spot for retirees and other Beijing residents who can take classes in Chi Kung (motion exercises) or in sidewalk calligraphy provided free by the government.

Tian Tan Park is also home to the Heavenly Temple, one of Beijing's most popular tourist attractions. As Beijing has created a tourist-friendly economy as it prepares to host the 2008 Olympics, the Heavenly Temple sight has joined those that sell souvenirs and snacks to tourists.

Beijing itself is a curious mix of homages to Chairman Mao and preparations for the "coming out" party of the 2008 Olympics, when China hopes to demonstrate its new face to visitors from throughout the world.

Chinas cities have attracted tens of millions of new residents, creating a demographic shift similar to what occurred in the Unites States from the 1930s to the 1960s.

In America, these millions of citizens facing new circumstances not only made for new consumer blocs, but also new voting blocs. In China today, the people of this generational shift have the ability to affect consumer choices, but can provide little input concerning government leaders.

Dissatisfaction concerning this arrangement has flared up in the past. It has been observed that those most eager to vote are those who are denied that right.

At the same time, there are millions of Chinese who have been raised to think of the government as a protector and a provider of "freedom from" things such as armed invasion and workplace exploitation from outsiders.

This is in contrast to the "freedom of" opportunities now being made available to younger Chinese citizens--more freedom to choose which consumer brands to support, which careers to choose, which cities to travel to and which music to listen to. Reconciling these two types of freedoms may prove difficult.

As Chinas economy develops, the issues facing leaders will become increasingly complex and the resources in their control will be more abundant. The writing on the sidewalk may well warn of an urgency to reform more than the economy alone.

RECYCLING REVS UP

Exporters of scrap to China have often wondered aloud whether that nation is adequately recycling its own materials stream.

Although recycling programs to collect cans, bottles and newspapers are not widespread, a peddler or scavenger class seeks out recyclable materials throughout the nation. According to Yang Mingsen, secretary-general of the China Forum of Environmental Journalists, very little that can be recycled goes to waste in China.

In both large and small cities, individuals towing bundled cardboard or newspapers behind their bicycles can be seen heading for smaller recycling facilities, who will direct the material toward China's thriving paper mill sector.

The recovery value of metal is also well known, and a visitor along one unpaved road outside of southern China's Qingyuan City will find dozens of scrap companies located in this one district.

The circumstances here can be less than ideal, as automation is scarce. Instead, laborers process materials by hand, including potentially hazardous items such as electrical transformers.

More modern and higher volume recycling plants are likely to be established as the wisdom of centralizing operations near key scrap generating areas and scrap-consuming destinations becomes clear.

The author is editor of Recycling Today and can be reached at [e-mail].