The place isn’t quite like I envisioned it. It is far more economically advanced that I imagined. The infrastructure here in Beijing, anyway, puts the U.S. to shame. The airport, the roads, the hotels, most of the big buildings …most of them are modern. Our cities are falling apart, in many cases, but in China, everything is new.

Beijing may have more 20-story buildings than any city on the planet. Just miles of them, in the central city. Manhattan has lots of really tall buildings, but Manhattan is small. Beijing sprawls.

Shanghai is supposed to be like this, skyscrapers everywhere, and more going up by the minute.

It’s part of the economic revival here.

Gone are the images we had from the past, of a population clad in draw olive pajamas, clutching Mao’s Little Red Book in their hands as they pedal their bicycles by the millions, hoping not to starve to death over the winter or be sent to a reeducation camp for the crime of holding a high school degree.

This country is also far younger than I thought. Though it could be a function of all the college-kid volunteers I’ve lived with, the past three weeks. In fact, of China’s 1.3 billion people, about 1 billion of them must be under 30, because I saw very very few older people. Especially anywhere around the Olympics.

It’s like anyone born before 1980 was just hidden away, the last three weeks. Unless they don’t exist? Well, we know they do.

What I wonder about, amidst all this growing prosperity (though the countryside remains desperately poor, I’m told) … is wondering how long the Chinese will allow the Communist party to have complete control of the government.

It seems as if the rise of a middle class has, historically, led to a push for representative governments. More open, more responsive, open to change within its ranks.

For now, that’s where the New China ends – where consumer goods leave off and real decision making begins.

How long can that last? Can the government here ride that tiger forever?

I think not. I don’t expect a revolution.  The younger generations seems fiercely nationalistic and enthralled by its leadership. And that’s where revolutions begin, among the young.

But someday … people with money and a stake in the economy are going to want some voice in the government that doesn’t require Communisy Party membership.

I don’t know when it will happen, or how … but I believe this country will inch toward more freedom, with more people having the ability to influence what it does and how it does it.