常州 - First Look

Was in China for 3 nights, in a place called 常州 (Changzhou). The trip from Shanghai was about 3 hours by car, due to the heavy traffic conditions. The roads, I must say, are quite well constructed, being new and all, but with the speed of development in other areas, it is unlikely that the road infrastructure can catch up with the traffic growth. But then, which city or country can claim not to have traffic jams. If there were no jams, could it be that there is too much of a redundancy in public infrastructure?

Did not have the time to go sightseeing during this trip, but saw enough of the city to know that progress is extremely rapid in places outside of the main cities of Beijing and Shanghai. We hear all this in the news, and through accounts from others, but physically seeing this is another thing altogether.

In contrast to 大庆 (Daqing) where I had worked in the most in China, the hotels in 常州 are extravagant, and the surroundings are very developed, and in some areas, not unlike Singapore.