This evocative exploration of the profound changes overtaking China examines the major dilemmas the country confronts: official corruption, growing disparities between rich and poor, the halting reform of state-owned enterprises, transportation and infrastructure bottlenecks, and environmental degradation. Shanghai-born and Western-educated, Cheng Li provides the unique dual perspective of a local resident and a political scientist who returned to his homeland to observe its remarkable social transformations. His sympathetic yet clear-eyed account provides the reader with the sounds and smells, tastes and textures of a country enduring the pangs of rapid reform.