More subway lines, more shopping malls, more international english training schools opening up and a lot more foreigners visiting every year. 

The amount of RMB available for exchanging foreign currency!

I first came to China in 1986 -- I would say that the whole of China has changed !

Meaning not only the landscape, the surroundings, but the people too.

Back then we had the FEC - Foreign Exchange Currency.... too long to recall the past.

First time before coming to China, contacted the close relatives in Guangdong and asked them what would they like brought to them, they were then so poor and so lacking of everything that they just said, anything will do.....that was in mid 80s

End of 80s, when asked what they want, they were all looking forward to having TV set, refrigerator, and washing machine, the 3 craze of the time

Beginning 90s, what they wanted was each family to own a motorcycle ....big craze then.

Mid 90s, after a decade, when asked the same question, they replied, no....nothing in particular, but maybe if I could bring them some French red wine ? they wanted to taste it.....same for chanpagne and shark fin......this went on till end 90s and beginning 21st century.....by then they each had every material necessities and wanted to try some exotic luxury goods.

This is something I wanted to share, to give a brief apercu of how I have personally experienced the changes in China during a period of time.

Now when I go to visit them, they entertain me to banquets and THEY give me plenty of gifts to take back home, I come almost empty handed to visit them now....because they lack of nothing.

In fact they all drive the latest models of cars, which compared to my old CORONA ....

and they all have big flat screens, so yes, there have been remarkable changes.

Hey tang, a great book for this, if you haven't read it yet, is Red China Blues by Jan Wong. She first came to China in the 70s and was one of the first two students from abroad to study at Beijing University. she ends up as a reporter for the Globe and Mail. The book details the changes in society from the 70s to the mid 90s. Skips about 8 years cause she was in Canada working as a journalist though, but still pretty interesting.

@nevermind : back then the foreigners were allowed to purchase duty free a list of things given the quantity is one piece per item, meaning one motorcycle, one tv set, one fridge, etc....and this once a year and with a new entry visa.   So we purchased in the local duty free shop which was much cheaper.   And yes, we could also choose to purchase in HK and bring back to China, much more troublesome like this though.

In my 10 years here, China has become more overtly middle class and much more consumer oriented, albeith without any tremenduous improvement in either quality control or of quality of service.  I am rendered furious quite often at least here on how the Soviet-era mentality of service and product remains so ingrained.  It will take generations I think to erase this.

My attitude.  I used to trust people before coming to China.  Now I trust nobody other than my own family.  Is the paranoia justified?  I'm not sure but I am damn tired of people here trying to exploit me.

A lot more chain supermarkets opening up.

I can't say it's the death of the family businesses, but these supermarkets do offer alot.

Especially alot more western goods than before.