Why??

I want to address a question that I have been asked about 100 times over the past couple of months. Why do you want to go to China? I thought I would answer this in my blog. China is fascinating to me. Because of their economy/government and the culture. First of all they are officially a communist country who has the fastest growing economy in the world. It is estimated that by the end of 2007 it will pass Germany and become the 3rd largest economy in the world just behind Japan and the United States. The idea of beinng communist wiht a market economy seem very contradictory but they are directly connected. The government knows that to maintain power they must keep the peasents happy because every major revolution in chinese history has started with the poorest people. So there thinking is that if they keep the economy strong then the people will be happy. I recentlly read one estimate that the Chinese would have to create 24 million jobs next year just to keep up with all of the people moving to the cities from the countryside. This is one motivation why the current communist party in control of China right now needs to keep the economy booming. That is one thing that fascinates me about China. The other is the culture it is 5000 years old. It has had so many invaders and emperors and westerners who have tried to colonize it but it still has maintained its identity as Chinese. The language both the writing and the spoken language although very difficult for a native english speaker is very intriguing. There is no alphabet and the language includes 4 tones. That does not just mean that you can say one word four different ways and it still means the same thing. It means that you can say one word 4 different ways and it will mean 4 different things. It makes it frustrating but also rewarding. I just hope that I can someday learn how to speak it fluently but that will take alot of work and is one of the many reasons I want to go to China. This are just few reasons why I want to go there are still more.