Was I really in China? My room at the Beijing International Hotel was immaculate and modern. And the morning breakfast buffet was a mini cornucopia of western foods. The view from my room was of wide boulevards and modern buildings. Thirty years ago, our guides would tell me, the city was definitely Chinese, whereas now it is generic modern with growing pains.

China is thrusting itself from fiefdom into the future --- with seemingly unstoppable momentum.

The capital, Beijing, is a city on the move, a greatly magnified version of Baron Haussmann’s Paris makeover in the mid 1800’s. Daily construction begins at 2:20am, according to the clock in my hotel room. Although Rome wasn’t built in a day, Beijing appears to be trying to break that record.