a block away, this. an ultra modern, clanging cash register, levels of wealth, luxury, the sheer volume of things and services unimagined by the greediest, most bourgeois of capitalist imperialists. the city split by the huangpu river, a tributary of the yangtze. in the older section which features the bund and the newer built-up section of pudong. the one thing i know for sure about china is i will never know china. it's too big, too old, too diverse, too deep. there's simply not enough time. that's for me the joy of china, facing a learning curve that impossibly steep. the certain knowledge that even if i dedicated my life to learning about china i'd die mostly ignorant. that's exciting. it's too much. and it's changing so fast. china has a population of around 1.3 billion people. and the number of them who are joining an explosive middle class, demanding their share of all that good stuff --