You arrive in Beijing’s expecting hordes of bicyclists passing in front of a giant portrait of Mao.  There are hordes of people, but not many bicycles. Instead, there is a constant stream of new cars including the occasional Ferrari and Lamborghini. Some say that the eyes in Mao’s portrait follow you as you walk into the Forbidden City. I am not sure about that, but there can be no doubt about the security cameras that blanket Tiananmen Square with their ever watchful gaze. Thousands of Chinese tourists, maybe tens of thousands, are lined up to view Mao’s mausoleum, even more are entering the Forbidden City to take a peek at China’s historical center of power while the real center of power, the headquarters of the Party, is just a few blocks away with its gates heavily guarded. Welcome to the New China.

They say you can see the Great Wall from Space, and I don’t know that that’s true either, but it is more likely you can see the new Global Center Mall in Cheng du, supposedly the largest in the world. Inside the mall, in addition to retail space, restaurants, an IMAX movie theatre, and an ice rink, there are also multiple hotels and a super-sized water park. Yes, a water park. Complete with multi-story water slides and a beach with man-made waves. The New China.

What is the New China? The New China is a growing middle class, just learning to travel and spend money. In the New China 100 million Chinese go on vacation for their Golden Week. Over five million go to Shanghai to Nanjing Street and the Bund, millions more to Guilin to see the Li River’s karst mountains. Everywhere there are massive crowds. Cities of 20 million people are commonplace. River tours on the Li River seem like Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean, with a chain of identical ships carrying passengers through limestone mountains.

There seems to be little no appreciation or actual knowledge of Chinese history and culture. They crowd into ersatz historical streets designed to look like traditional China, but filled with knock-offs and tacky souvenirs. The terracotta warriors are just another opportunity to hop on a tour bus and follow a guide with a flag and microphone. Of course if there are two American girls there, it is a photo opportunity.

The family tree has been inverted. Instead of one ancestor with many decedents, each “only child” now has a pyramid of parents and grandparents. Grandparents are forced to retire in their 50s and sit around in parks playing hacki-sack and mah jong. Often they can be seen with their young grandchildren as the parents need to work to afford outrageously expensive rent or to buy a car (which they aren’t allowed to drive one day a week due to overcrowded streets). In touring China, nothing was a clearer sign of a foreigner than a sibling. The Chinese now recognize that the one child policy is a train wreck waiting to happen – actually it’s already happening. The government has been pushing pension and retirement funding into private sector for the past decade which means that each child will soon need wages (or bribes) sufficient to support six dependents as the parents and grandparents live longer into retirement. On the other hand, with severe over population, the policy still seems a necessity at least for a few more years.

Among all the crowds, the pushing and the tackiness, a few things shine. Impressions of Sanjie Liu, an exquisite performance, shows what you can do with 600 performers (abundant labor supply) and the Li River (incredible natural resources) as a stage. It links the past and present of China together and demonstrates China’s potential. Cheng du, a city of some 20 million people has preserved its culture of tea houses and hot pot, while sporting a super-efficient subway system. Cars, buses, scooters and bicycles move together in harmony in this tech focused city.

More than anything, China is a country on the move. New buildings are going up everywhere. There is an excitement associated with a whole generation leaving the countryside and moving to the cities. Everywhere there is the energy of possibility. As the US struggles with the two-party system deadlocked over paying our bills, China’s one-party system even with its inbred corruption, seems extremely efficient. While the lack of freedom is grating (Facebook and Google were banned) most Chinese seem to accept the limitations as the price for progress. It is hard to say what is next, but it is clear that the New China will be at the center of the next century.