It's the Wild, Wild East

Though China is still ruled by the Communist Party, its priority since the late 1970s, when it opened its doors to trade, is economic growth. In 2002, that priority was gold-stamped by China's incoming new president and cemented China's comfort with capitalistic pursuit and its rise to a world power. It also turned China into a boomtown.

The China of today is much like the U.S. of the Industrial Revolution and the Gold Rush that punctuated that era. Like the U.S. in that era, thirsty for money and power, China struggles with an insufficient infrastructure to protect its citizens from all sorts of environmental, health and safety hazards.

Once-sleepy fishing villages in the Pearl River Delta region of China have been transformed--seemingly overnight--into modern industrial megalopolises as more and more foreigners and domestic residents flock to China's coastal cities to seek their fortunes.

Buildings are being demolished left and right...