One of the most staggeringly impressive topics that keeps popping up in the news are the rapid rise of new megacities in China. According to this article, 50 percent of China will be urban instead of rural. This, of course, has a great implication for a massive increase in access to the Internet and demand for consumer goods.

In 1978, a mere 18 percent of Chinese lived in cities and towns. By 2010, the authorities estimate that 50 percent will, as part of what demographers and other experts say is the greatest migration in human history.

One after another, the big cities of the interior have eagerly entered the race to urbanize, with many openly brandishing the objective of becoming a “world city” within a few years. But whether judged by its size, its ambition or the scale of transformation, Chongqing, with its 12 million people, remains in a class by itself.