Across the country, China is spending $100 billion on infrastructure, twice the amount President Obama has requested in the United States. The Shanghai skyline, with its towering skyscrapers, was built in record time, just two decades. Large projects, like a sixteen-lane bridge, are completed in the time it takes just to acquire the building permits in the U.S. Just last week, 200 workers built a 15-story hotel in six days, using prefabricated pieces that snapped together like Lego building blocks.
Chinese engineering is speeding ahead in other areas, outdoing American efforts. By the end of next year, a train from Beijing to Shanghai will take just four hours. It will cover a distance equivalent to that between New York and Atlanta, a trip that takes Americans 18 hours.
These latest displays of engineering ingenuity have prompted responses from U.S. officials, including President Obama.
"It makes no sense for China to have better rail systems than us," Obama said at a press conference after the midterm elections. "And we just learned that China now has the fastest supercomputer on Earth. That used to be us."
Today more people study English in China than there are people in America. More Chinese are pursuing degrees -- the nation will produce more university graduates this year than India and the U.S. combined.
China's Growing Economy, By the Numbers - ABC News
The GDP growth rate in China is 10%. Three times that of the US. If the current growth rates continue China will surpass the US in 40 years.
Chinese engineering is speeding ahead in other areas, outdoing American efforts. By the end of next year, a train from Beijing to Shanghai will take just four hours. It will cover a distance equivalent to that between New York and Atlanta, a trip that takes Americans 18 hours.
These latest displays of engineering ingenuity have prompted responses from U.S. officials, including President Obama.
"It makes no sense for China to have better rail systems than us," Obama said at a press conference after the midterm elections. "And we just learned that China now has the fastest supercomputer on Earth. That used to be us."
Today more people study English in China than there are people in America. More Chinese are pursuing degrees -- the nation will produce more university graduates this year than India and the U.S. combined.
China's Growing Economy, By the Numbers - ABC News
The GDP growth rate in China is 10%. Three times that of the US. If the current growth rates continue China will surpass the US in 40 years.