Want to see how China does things. Beijing is the third largest city in China with a population of 16 million, after Chongjong somewhere in central China which apparently has 70 million (yes 70 million, twice to population of Canada) and Shanghai 17 million. Twenty five years ago Beijing apparently was a truly third world, mostly gigantic filthy slum of humanity with garbage and police everywhere. Step in the government in 1978 and motivate each family by providing them with a watch, sewing machine and bicycle. Five years later the government provided each household with a washing machine, refrigerator and TV. Combine this by providing 8 lane superhighways in both the NS and EW directions thru the center of the city and six concentric 8 lane ring road freeways beautifully landscaped with both trees and flowers spaced approx four miles apart. Bulldoze almost everything in-between, build hundred and hundreds of super modern 16 to 20 story high rise apartments and offices in between, add a modern subway, hospitals and a school system that starts teaching English in kindergarten. Absolutely amazing. The Government still owns all the land but encourages private ownership of buildings on 75 year land leases. You would think that you were in the most modern city in North America or Europe. English everywhere. Spotlessly clean, (not even so much as a cigarette butt on the sidewalks) except for the air pollution. (This will change as I personally remember cities like Detroit and Hamburg being so polluted that you could hardly breath.) Hundreds of climbing cranes as new building going up wherever you look. Most astonishing is attitude of people.  According to Joan when she visted there twenty years ago they would not even look at you  and police everywhere. Apparently scared. Today they approach you with warm smiles. I did not see one armed policeman and no more regular police than you would expect at home. Our 30 year old bus guide gave Joan a big hug when seeing that we would be on her bus for a second day. She has travelled through much of Asia and hopes to save enough money to go to North America and Europe. She also hope to buy a condo as an investment right after to 2008 Olympics when the prices should drop. Her father owns four condos for his retirement income. (all above McDonald's or KFC because they would have done market research to find the best locations) Almost sounds like filthy capitalism to me.  

 She  and others we talked to seemed very sincere and perfectly comfortable when talking about politics or whatever. Never did we get the impression  that she was feeding us some party line. On politics, her point of view was that while they had a say in their local government representative she trusted him or her to pick higher up government officials.
"They obviously know who would be best, better than I would"
 
 "All I and my friends know is that every year things get better"
 
 "Yes, all my friends have cell phones and computers but few of their parents do. My mother is an exception. She text messages me  40 times a day to phone her" To text message Chinese characters we type in the first few English sounding letters and the cell phone brings up a list of Chinese characters to choose from"
 
 "Yes we have crime but it is mostly petty stuff and is getting less every year".
 
 "Despite the government law saying women can not get married until 20 years old and men until 22, our divorce rate is 25%. Far higher than our parents".
 
 "There are a few homeless. But some panhandlers, are not poor, they are just cheating the public".
 
 "With very high condo prices many couples have to spend up to 40 of their incomes on mortgage payments or rent. Making it very hard to make ends meet"
 
 "Very few young people practice any religion, but 10% of the whole population belong to some religious group."
 
 When I asked her how they justify toll roads in a government run economy she instantly answered "We have to pay the bank that lent the money for the road construction back somehow".

All in all, looks like they are picking the best of both a fully controlled society and free enterprise. Sure doesn't take them a year to get a house demolition permit like some places I know. All the above said, near the docks, 50 km from the city, in some areas we saw poverty, squallier, garbage and filth worse than any we saw in Egypt. So they have their major problems too.

Singapore (a city as well as a small independent country) also looks somewhat like Vancouver. It has approximately the same area but has a population of 4 million. It has huge parks and over a million planted trees in the city. Every Nov 1st is tree planting day when citizens plant government issued trees. One of botanical gardens we visited has a spectacular orchid section that was larger than the whole of Butchart Gardens containing over 10,000 species of orchids mostly in bloom.
The whole city is absolutely spotlessly clean mainly because of some very strict laws that apply to absolutely everyone including foreigners:

Drug procession of 20 grams      - Hanging (approx 12 per year, on last Fri of every month at exactly 5:00AM)
Vandalism and graffiti                 -  Mandatory jail and caning
Not flushing public toilet           - $150
Littering                                        - $1000
Feeding birds                               - $1000
Eating/Drinking on mass transit - $500
Any form of corruption is penalized severely

They have and unique method on limiting cars. Every month there is a silent auction for a permit to buy a car that stays with the car for 10 years. Normally there are 1000 issued and the bid price may vary between $17,000 up to $50,000 depending on demand that month. All successful bidders pay the price of the lowest cut off bid. The licences for cars older than 10 years is also several times the normal cost because they might break down causing congestion or more pollution. They also issue a discounted yellow licence plate that allows some vehicles to be driven only in non rush times unless you buy a $20 day permit. All cars are equipped with sensors that bill the owner every time they enter the city center area. Thus, absolutely no pollution or seldom traffic congestion.

Eighty per cent of the population uses public transit regularly and lives in subsidized government constructed high rise condos of approx 1500 square feet. To qualify to buy government housing you can not earn over $6,000 per month and must be married (unless you are over 35 years old). Over 85% of population are homeowners, amongst the highest in world. Absolutely no homeless.

Because of it historical strategic location on the main sea shipping lane between the East (China) and the West (Europe and India) Singapore has become the busiest container port in the world. They handle 23 million containers a year and a container ship arrives or departs every 3 minutes. They also have the largest oil refinery in the world although no oil of their own.

All school kids wear uniforms and there is a 2 year mandatory military conscription for all boys at age 18. Until age 40 all men must also serve 2 weeks in the military every year. Most of the military commanders are provided additional military schooling in the US or Europe. Combined with state of the art military hardware and their serious training, they are confident they can fend of absolutely any military potential invasion except an atomic attack. English is the mandatory language.
Until independence from Britain 42 years ago Singapore was dirt poor and basically a huge corrupt slum. Our bus guide can personally remember seeing in China Town some elderly people so poor that they would build their own coffin on the street, then crawl in and wait to die. After independence the first prime minister, who was schooled in England, gathered 7 other Western educated associates. One of the seven is a Thomas Ng who later moved to Vancouver and was a regular customer of the Inn on 7th. The new government vowed to eliminate corruption, create a middle class and to develop both long term economic and cultural plans. By initially acting virtually as dictators, they succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations. They even temporarily banned spray paint to stop graffiti and chewing gum because teenagers were using it the jamb the coin fare boxes on the transit system. Today, 42 years later, their political party is still in power, Singapore has the highest per capita income in Asia and the party is so popular that the opposition has only 2 of the 80 parliamentary seats. They now casually boast that the have the cleanest China Town in the world and have been able to close 2/3 of their police stations as the crime rate is so low. Because of Singapore's economic success and the high level of education their birth rate has fallen below 35,000 births per year. They need 50,000 to maintain their population so for a short period of time they have invited selective immigration based on skills. Not like some countries I know where if you are accepted as a refuge you can automatically bring in 184 of your closest relatives. In short, their elected political leaders actually lead and don't govern solely on popularity polls. Canada could take a lesson. 

Singapore borders Indonesia. Those parts that we visited, except for Bali,  are still very corrupt, dirt poor, filthy and mostly unsafe for unguided tourists.  One of our cruise friends compared the cities of Indonesia what to Tijuana was like 40 years ago. What a contrast to Singapore   

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PS South Korea is the most wired internet/cell phone country in the world because of government initiatives ( Kind of reminds me of Canada's CRTC ). In Korea LG Electronics has 82,000 employees and they mostly all speak and write only English at work. Saw CEO on TV and he says for LG bad English is better than perfect Korean