To be clear I am not suggesting that Japan had the same level of growth from 2000 vs 2010 rather when you compare growth at similar levels of development the growth seems less impressive.  I used to think much more highly of China but after watching how much supervision a group of visiting academics had I became far less enchanted.<p>PS: Visiting China it's easy to overestimate the level of growth if you are anywhere near the coast, I would suggest you wonder around western china to get some idea of how far the country has to go.<p>Edit: Find China <a href="http://geology.com/articles/satellite-photo-earth-at-night.shtml" rel="nofollow">http://geology.com/articles/satellite-photo-earth-at-night.s...</a> granted I think that's a compost from the mid 90's but you can still see the trend on where development takes place.