It was remarkable what they accomplished with almost no institutional support. That's another contrast to 19th-century America, when rapid development across the nation also amazed visitors, who described new towns rising in distinct stages. Typically the earliest settlers included lawyers, along with traders and bankers. A local newspaper often began printing while people still lived in tents. The first buildings were generally the courthouse and the church, and lending libraries appeared quickly. If it was a tough world, at least there was some early sense of community and law.

In China, though, new cities are strictly business: factories and construction supplies and cell phone shops. Local governments focus on profiteering, and the Communist Party has always discouraged the kind of organizations that contribute in other societies. This is perhaps the nation's greatest human rights challenge. Westerners tend to focus on the dramatic—�dissidents, censorship—�but it's the lack of institutions that actually hurts most Chinese. Workers are left to fend for themselves: no independent unions, no free press, few community groups. Through sheer willpower, many succeed, but the wasted potential is staggering. In the reform years China has unleashed its remarkable population; the next stage is to learn to respect this wealth.

In Zhejiang I drove through a half dozen new towns that were being constructed as part of the Tankeng Hydroelectric Dam. More than 50,000 people were being relocated, and the dam would provide electricity for the region's factories. Nowadays energy shortages have inspired a wave of dambuilding across China, where people are relocated into new communities that follow familiar construction stages: the building supplies for sale, the cell phone shops, the garbage-strewn streets. But there's always a police presence, because of the fear of unrest by people forced to leave their homes. And propaganda banners are everywhere. In Zhejiang it was hard not to become suspicious when the Communist Party's slogans suddenly praised long-term thinking: Offer the Tankeng Dam as a tribute today / benefit the generations of tomorrow.

Almost nothing about today's China inspires optimism about environmental issues. National characteristics are potentially disastrous: massive population, weak central government, local authorities that need to raise funds through constant development. According to a World Bank report, China already has four of the ten cities with the most polluted air, and increasingly the nation's problems are the world's. China has become the leading emitter of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. And yet the auto boom has just begun; the nation is responsible for less than 10 percent of worldwide oil consumption.