Visiting Shanghai and neighbouring Jiangsu province, it is difficult to avoid the feeling that a titan is rising. The energy of the people and the infrastructure bear witness to China's great strides forward. Communism did much damage, but it also accelerated the emancipation of women and provided free and compulsory education of nine years for both boys and girls. China's on-going historic transformation, a wonder to behold, has already lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty in just three decades.

Yet, while the modernization of hardware has leapt ahead, the software, as it were, perhaps unsurprisingly, lags behind. The highways of Shanghai are world-class, but motorists using them frequently flout traffic rules. Pedestrian crossings are provided for the security and safety of pedestrians but motorists believe they have the right of way, making crossing of roads, especially for the elderly, a serious hazard.

It is puzzling that some condominiums in Shanghai, a city considered relatively safe to live in, are ringed by conspicuous live electric wire fences mounted on concrete walls. Is it to enhance security or to flaunt their exclusiveness? Whatever the reason, they could have a divisive effect because they are said to annoy many ordinary people, and thus are not conducive to the government's stated goal of achieving a harmonious society. Another oddity is that in Jiangsu province the fees for entry to some of the historic and cultural sites seems way too high for the average Chinese. For instance it costs 90 yuan (S$17) to enter the Pingshan temple in Yangzhou, as much as a comfortable First Class train ride from Shanghai to Zengchiang, a distance of about 200 kilometers. The trishaw-man in Yangzhou gets 3 yuan for ferrying a passenger (or two) for 10–15 minutes.

Deng Xiao-ping's slogan to let some people get rich first may have been too successfully implemented, needing midcourse adjustment to deal with growing inequalities. The ugly aspects of capitalism in a system characterised as socialism with Chinese characteristics can be starkly visible.