The Real China: ... 2283;際英文版）

China had been invaded conquered and ruled by foreign tribes many times over since the third century. However at the end of the day the invaders willingly assimilated into ethnic Chinese culture and as a result their territories became parts of China. Chinese territory and civilization grew further. How and why?From Desperation to Aspiration. How? The year was 1991 when I traveled to China and found myself dis-mayed by the quality of the roads near Xian an ancient capital noted for its terracotta statues dating back to 206 BCE. As we bumped along the weather-beaten path I sarcastically asked my guide Is there a super-high-way at all in China? The guide tossed a blank look at me as if in shock that I would betray my Chinese heritage by speaking such an insult. A quick-witted local Chinese answered promptly for her: Of course we have - in Taiwan. A little more than a decade later when I returned to Xian in Febru-ary of 2005 the cityscape had completely changed. This time as I was driven into the city skyscrapers stretched up into the sky and new buildings dotted the streets as well as the countryside. In answer to my question so many years earlier the airport is now connected to the famed city via a well-constructed and maintained superhighway which directly con-nects to Beijing. In fact a superhighway system is already in existence a system that connects countless cities including those in remote border provinces. During my fourteen-year absence between 1991 and 2005 China had undergone vast changes. The construction of superhighways is but one of them. Today China boasts of over 50000 kilometers (31250 miles) of four-or-more lane modern superhighways a system that was only completed in the recent decade. (Incidentally the total mileage of Taiwans superhighway is less than 250 miles.) Plans call for the completion of an additional 35000 kilometers (21875 miles) of superhigh-ways by 2015 making the total mileage 53125 miles. This achievement would put the mileage of Chinas superhighways beyond that of the U.S. Eisenhower Interstate Highway System (46726 miles as of October 31 2002; and not too many miles were added after 2002). As I considered these impressive facts I was led to wonder how China could have achieved so much in such a short time during which China also rose to become an economic power? Yet the highway system was only the tip of the iceberg of progress when it came to Chinas advances. This led me to ask even more questions and discover more answers. I would soon discover that this rapid renaissance was almost a natural consequence a repetition of recoveries from similar calamities in the past two millennia.