The Chinese think large

The Chinese also exhibit an uncanny obsession with atmospheric phenomenon and it’s a big part of their folk tradition. They also have a lot of hi-technology at ‘bending’ nature, which mostly seem expensive failures.

Though some of their grand scale historical projects are rather successful even today - The Great Wall the best example - it’s mostly a series of reconstruction over centuries and for defensive purposes though does have some use against blowing sands.

The Dujiangyan Weir in Sichuan is a famous colossal project dating from around 243 BC. It keeps large swathes of Sichuan’s Minjiang River basin from flooding and it still functions perfectly well to this day.

In a word, the Chinese think large. Normally it would take a volcano to destroy mountains but the government here have proposed removing mountains from the areas around Lanzhou in order to alleviate pollution levels.

Their space program, though moderate, is more in line with the spirit of NASA in the 1960’s and uses tried and tested eastern know-how. They have ambitions to return to the moon, which no one doubts they will achieve and they would probably know how to make it productive. There are stories of new Chinese immigrants being favoured in the Australian outback towns because of their gardening prowess and ability to cultivate under unfavourable conditions - along with all that money they bring from their homeland.

New Zealand now has an open trade policy with China along with some of those 'dubious' pariah states - North Korea and Myanmar the two most infamous - but China is considered a stern partner to deal with.

However, nobody really wants to be left out and with the news that China will probably overtake Japan and become the world’s second biggest economy this year with 8.7 % growth levels already achieved, there will no doubt be more ‘friends’ willing to trip over themselves to do business here.