Chinese people are so eager to trade with the English

Oct 20 2006 By Nicholas Craig, The Journal

It's nothing like blue skies at Beijing at the moment. This huge city has been in a frenzy of preparation for the 2008 Olympics for years, but it appears it cannot win the battle of the sky.

A cloud still hangs over the city that threatens the success of the event. Pollution is a perennial problem, and despite the best efforts of the authorities smog suffuses Beijing too often.

I've visited Beijing each year since it won the bid to host the Olympics. With boundless, ruthless energy China has transformed the city. More than £20bn has been earmarked for infrastructure projects, dwarfing the amount planned for London in 2012.

Pollution stubbornly remains, however, despite many millions being spent on cleaning up the capital. As Beijing grows richer, the numbers of cars increase. In two years' time there may be 3.5m. Non-stop building and demolition has resulted in a persistent dust; coal-burning power plants and 700 million tons of straw-burning by farmers almost break the camel's back.

The authorities are coming down hard. Twenty-two new rules aim to curb pollution. Factories will have to close during the Games and millions of private cars may be forbidden to use the roads. I hope they succeed, but time is ticking fast.

Beijing's physical changes are matched by the country's economy, which is growing more than four times faster than Britain's - faster, in fact, than any economy in history.

Beijing sees the Games as a key `coming-out' party during which it can finally be recognised as an influential, outward-looking world culture.

Shanghai, one of the most exciting cities I have ever visited, is looking past the Olympics to the 2010 World Expo.

Luxury hotels, restaurants and bars have sprung up since I last stayed here. Shanghai is relatively new in Chinese terms - it grew up in the 1840s - and it still rushes towards the future.

The city centre is forested with skyscrapers tottering towards the sky. Yet there are still stylish Art Deco and Edwardian buildings that remind you of the `Paris of the East' tag adopted by 20th century Shanghai.

Doing business in China is not for the unwary, but each time I visit there are more UK success stories, and many more Chinese business people eager to trade with England.

They exhibit all the same ferocious energy that hallmarks activity in their cities.