Recent visits to three Chinese provincial capitals in the interior of China have left me in awe of the pace and magnitude of property and infrastructure development. I felt my head spinning at the 24/7 pulse of activity in each of Chengdu, Chongqing and Kunming. Or perhaps it was just the air enveloping the cities, laced as the environment was with dust from the constant construction work and fumes from cars, trucks and buses. Nevertheless, it was easy to see that the Open-Purse Policy the Chinese leadership encouraged of its banks this year was clearly in high gear.

Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, was far larger than I had anticipated, with broad avenues choked with traffic framed by construction cranes launching high-rises every other block. In general, the people were as relaxed and generous with conversation as I had heard, and the food was absolutely amazing. I did find, though, after several days in the city, it was a treat to find a restaurant where I could find food that was NOT spicey. The Bookworm bookstore and cafe was a welcome retreat from the frenetic pace of construction and traffic, and had a dynamite American-style breakfast on offer. I was surprised at the number of chic international retail outlets at the center of the city, and the expensive import luxury cars dumping wives and girl friends in front of the expensively decorated storefronts. And the bar street across the canal from the Shangrila Hotel was a fun outdoor venue from which to watch the crowds amble by, looking to be looked at. A group of local guys at one of the bars thought my haircut was pretty groovy and invited me to get as falling-down drunk as they were. Though I did join in, experience taught me how to lie convincingly enough I was able to escape with the contents of my stomach still intact.

In Chongqing I saw an old American friend and his wife on their penultimate day before returning to the States after they had worked in China nearly five years. I have a special place in my heart for Chongqing, its people, its roughed geography, its history and the Wild West approach to business the city takes. It had been about two years since I had finished a couple projects out that way, but I was instinctively able to steer to some of the places I had frequented in the past, and knew enough about the places I wanted to visit but hadn’t yet. One place high on my list was the Stillwell Museum, likely the only museum in China dedicated to an American. General Joe “Vinegar” Stillwell was the guiding force behind the Allied defense of China during World War II, and the architect and engineer of the famous Burma Road, which sliced a dangerous logistics route through South China, Burma and into India. It was truly inspiring to be in the house cum museum that had been his home and Allied headquarters in China until Chiang Kai Shek had him thrown out of China to save Face. Another inspirational retreat was the home of Chiang Kai Shek and his wife Soong Mei Ling (Madame Chiang), which was cleverly hidden amongst the forests shrouding the mountains ringing the modern city, a clever defense against the Japanese air raids that at one time made Chongqing the most bombed city in human history. Traffic in Chongqing was even more choked than in Chengdu, because of the narrow and sometimes hazardous roads that intersect like a bowl of soot-covered noodles.

I had been to Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, two years before, and was amazed to find it even more abuzz with construction and commercial activity than my first visit. Lee Perkins, a British expat and founder of China Intel Group, a market research company that has developed expertise in south China and southeast Asia, met with me for a few rounds of beers at a hangout I had developed a fondness for during my first visit, Salvador’s Cafe. Lee, who splits his time between Kunming and Beijing, told me how the massive construction/destruction project I had come across as I had exited the airport involved turning the city’s second ring road into an elevated pass; the city had just finished its third-ring road, and was intent on building its new international airport, after which they would tear down its current, dog-eared domestic airport. One of the things that struck me strongest while strolling through the exhaust-choked streets of the city was how many high-end luxury shops from Italy and France and Switzerland had popped up in just two years, and how many more chic high-rise malls were under construction.

One of the biggest differences I noted upon each of my returns from the deep south to my hometown Suzhou, near Shanghai, was that I did not see any fights or even arguments in the streets of the landlocked cities. Literally, within three days of returning to Suzhou I saw two fights in broad daylight that drew large, highly entertained crowds.

Still, there’s no place like home.