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Sitting in the Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) train in Shanghai racing to the airport, it is hard not to feel sorry for the ambitious plan of our rulers to turn Mumbai into a replica of this splendid city.

What could they have been thinking?

To begin with, take the Maglev. To call it a train is like calling a Rolls Royce a car. Yes, the Maglev, like any other train moves people around, but there the comparison stops.

This futuristic beauty takes people from the city to the airport, a distance of 33 km, in 7 minutes flat.

As it glides, it picks up speed — 100 kmph, 200 kmph, then 300, 400 and then finally reaching 430 km per hour and the Mumbaiwallah starts wondering what it would be like to reach Pune in less than 40 minutes or even Delhi in under 6 hours.

The Maglev is of course not the only showpiece in Shanghai. The entire city is one big advertisement for the new China — throbbing with construction activity, super buildings coming up all over, terrific roads, fancy cars and well-dressed people shopping for the latest gadgets.

There is a seamier side too and Shanghai has it more than most — beggars, fake good sellers and pimps — but that is inevitable in a massive city of 20 million people.

What is undeniable is that Shanghai, like much of urban China, is a city looking towards the future and making a global statement.

At the city planning department, an exhibition details the history of Shanghai in the 20th century (and neatly sidesteps the whole bit about the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath).

Most of the talk in Shanghai, Beijing and elsewhere is about its impressive markers of growth. An economic development zone outside Shanghai that is as big as Singapore (Pudong), Asia’s tallest tower, an SEZ that went from being a village of 30,000 people to a city of 10 million in about 25 years (Shenzen), Fortune 500 companies setting up shop in a spanking new city north of Beijing (Tianjin) and so on.

In Beijing, where the stately Forbidden City sits in repose while the frantically busy world around it hums along on 8-lane main roads, they tell you about buildings being designed by legendary architects like Normal Foster and Rem Koolhas.

And of course there is the preparation for the Olympics, China’s opportunity show itself to the world. All this my Chinese hosts show matter-of-factly. Boasting andsuperlatives are not the Chinese way.

But modern China has some serious problems. The environment hassufferedbecause of unbridled development. Corruption is another worry.

The international media has reported these matters and occasionally stories find their way into the Chinese press too. The Chinese establishment is becoming open about the challenges faced by the country.

“We have growth but we have poverty too,” one senior official says. Others talk of ‘maintaining social harmony’ as the biggest faultline to watch out for.

Unbridled growth has brought other problems in its wake. The education system has just not been able to produce enough quality talent across the board. It’s not the elite PhDs that will eventually matter, but the tens of millions of average Chinese who will have to learn skills to cope with the future.

With the world coming to China, the country needs people who can not only work but also communicate. Where are the English teachers going to come from, for example? This is something Indians may want to explore.

Indo-Chinese ties are getting better, notwithstanding the outstanding border issues. Both sides are looking at strategic, long-term links. Investment is picking up and trade is growing at a galloping pace.

The warehouses of Guangzhou are crawling with Indians picking up everything from tiles to toys. Indian tech companies are setting up offices there and Chineseexecutives are moving to India.

But Indians have not yet fully ‘discovered’ China. Not only is tourism negligible, the immense business and job possibilities have not been fully exploited.

That will have to change. For all our talk of Chindia, Indians must acknowledge that this country is far behind China in many respects. We like to point out that we are a democracy and not a one-party authoritarian state, which is true enough, but our democracy cannot become an excuse for our failures.

Instead, we should look upon China as an opportunity for the future. As neighbours and as two large economies, the two could become business associates and partners if not friends.

Indians could be working there in executive positions, just like they do in the Gulf. This does not mean that we will have no problems with China or it will suddenly become a close friend, but no purpose will be served by being suspicious. It cannot be wished away.

While the governments work towards building official links (and our own Vilasrao Deshmukh dreams of turning Mumbai into Shanghai), ordinary Indians can do no better than getting their children a teacher of Mandarin.

Email: sidharth01@dnaindia.net