A year under three decades. That's all it took for the PRC to wind down its mighty class struggles, and take up capitalism with Chinese characteristics. Three decades and a year later, China is made over, from a scrawny, introverted wallflower to a brawny, over-achieving jock. But the cool western kids still sniff at letting China into the clubhouse. And their media barely troubles to sound objective about it. Pollution, exploitation, human rights abuse, the newspapers harangue, with all the hypocritical self-righteousness of cheerleaders condemning the new girl on the squad for "thinking she's all that".
So just to let westerners know China's rise after the 1978 reforms has been something more than a sleeping cur turned menacing dragon, we give you some now and then statistics.
Number of rural Chinese living in absolute poverty in 1978: 250 million.
In 2009: 14.5 million.
Total number of cities in China in 1978: 193.
In 2009: 655. It's a good thing, really. Chinese villages are by and large marvels of muck and uncarted refuse, aside from the exceptions we bring you in our travel articles.
Total length of China highways in 1978: 890,000 km.
In 2009: 3,720,000 km. Here's to the end of the bumpy Chinese bus ride, and having to read about it in every. single. China travel blog.
Overseas visitors to China in 1978: 1.8 million. Virtually all members of the Norman Bethune Appreciation Society.
Foreign visitors to China in 2007: 131.8 million. A number which actually dropped in 2008. Beijing huanying ni indeed.
Chinese tourists abroad in 1978: good luck with that.
Chinese tourists abroad in 2009: over 42 million. This just in; the Chinese food in Paris is terrible, and people are forever blowing their noses in London - disgusting!
Privately-owned Chinese restaurants in Beijing, 2009: 42,000+ (excluding the many under 50 sqm and snack stalls).
Privately-owned Chinese restaurants in Beijing, 1978: 0. In 1980, 47-year-old Liu Guixian opened the first, Yuebin Restaurant, with 1,000 RMB in start-up capital. By the turn of the millennium, she had over 10 million in savings, and her obligatory Audi.
Students enrolled in institutions of higher learning in 1978: 860,000. Knowing stuff was still easing its way back into vogue.
Today: 19.7 million.
Chinese students studying abroad in 1978: 860. Mostly at Tirana Tech. and the Havana College of Cigar Studies.
Chinese students studying abroad in 2008: 151,000. Most lag significantly in beer-to-class-hour ratio.
Chinese urban person's disposable income in 1978: 344 RMB. Not that there was much to buy that didn't have a picture of Mao on it.
Urban disposable income in 2007: 13,786 RMB. That's an awful lot of skin-whitening cream and McDonald's taro pie.
Average Chinese savings account balance: 210,000 RMB. Phenomenal, considering a good job paid 50 RMB per month.
In 2007: 172,534 RMB. Phenomenal, considering average American household debt in 2008 was $118,000.
Most statistics taken from China in Diagrams, by Jin Quan.
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