Ｗｉｔｎｅｓｓ ｔｏ ａ Ｃｈａｎｇｉｎｇ Ｃｈｉｎａ

Ｂｙ　ＨＵＳＳＥＩＮ　ＩＳＭＡＩＬ

In three decades,

China has achieved what may not be achieved over centuries in some countries,

and it continues to grow along its chosen course.

I have lived through a good part of the 30-year opening-up and reforms in China that began in 1978, having arrived in 1992, and I have been here since. My job has given me the opportunity to visit many parts of the country, and I have been able to see for myself the progress China has made. To know how different China is today from the way it was in 1992, the experience of the two flights I made that year, and then this October, may give you some idea.

Sixteen years ago my decision to go to China was met with consternation, even commiseration, from my friends in Egypt. Some asked: “Is there enough food in that big faraway country?” The stories of dire food shortage in China in the 70s and early 80s were still fresh in peoples minds. As a preparation, I packed into my baggage a big load of rice, Arab bread, beans and other life necessities. After a flight with Air China, I set foot on Chinese soil at the Beijing airport, whose size and facilities could draw no comparison with that in Dubai, where I made the transfer, or even the more modest one in my hometown Cairo.

But for my latest trip from Cairo to Beijing this year I carried nothing with me but some Egyptian souvenirs. My plane landed in the gleaming new Terminal Three of the Capital International Airport, a real architectural masterpiece with an annual capacity of 80 million passengers. It is a hub for airlines from all over the world, including four from Arabic countries — Egypt Air, Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad Airways.

The dramatic changes are not confined to the capital city. When I visited Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, one of the least developed regions in China, in 1998, it was still struggling with poverty. But when I returned a decade later, I saw a land of hope, ambition and an abundance of wealth. Hi-tech plants and industrial and agricultural parks dotted Chinas long desolate northwest. In an article I wrote: “China is not a country to be starved. How could it be when grains, fruits and grazing grass are grown even in its deserts and wilderness?” When I headed for China from Egypt in 2008, no one was surprised, for China no longer looks that far away or strange.

In my early days in Beijing I had to commute 20 kilometers regularly to buy foreign food, such as cheese, olive, Arab bread — ingredients absent from the local diet. Coffee was available only in star hotels. Today, I can find them all by my home. Beijing has grown into a real cosmopolitan city, where people of different faiths and ethnic origins live happily together. When you call for emergency aid in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, you can expect a response in multiple languages, including Arabic, Spanish and Russian.

In the course of 30 years, China has had some lapses and encountered problems.Thorny issues, such as the environment, energy, unemployment and the wealth gap, have accompanied progress, as they have elsewhere in the world. But Chinese leaders have worked hard to find a solution.

In three decades, China has achieved what may not be achieved over centuries in some countries, and it continues to grow along its chosen course. As its leaders proclaim repeatedly, China is still a developing country, and it has a long way to go to catch up with its developed peers. In my opinion, whats most significant about the opening-up and reforms is that Chinese people have personally perceived the changes, and have benefited from them.