China's new industrial revolution
Take one example: high speed rail.
Five years ago, there was not a single kilometre of high speed track in China. Today, it has more than Europe and by 2012, it will have more than the rest of the world put together.
A vast, spotless factory in the port city of Qingdao is in the front line of this new industrial revolution.
It is here that the giant state-controlled train-making company CSR developed a Chinese high-speed train.
China's leaders "played a strong role in making all of this happen", says CSR's chairman, Xiaogang Zhao.
New train
Inside the Qingdao factory, senior engineer Ding Sansan explains how every aspect of the Japanese train had to be redesigned for the faster 350 kilometres per hour running speed that China's high-speed strategy demanded.
Everyone worked so hard on the project that he can hardly remember his last holiday.
"It was a very big challenge", he says.
And it is just the beginning.
Mr Ding is now working on a new train, due to be tested next year at an astonishing 500 kilometres per hour.