Although there has been an explosion in the number of personal autos and trucks, you'll still find motorized and pedal-powered rickshaws on the roads, along with two-wheeled vehicles

It didn’t take long for Bruce Jaffee, an Indiana University professor who has now visited China three times to see differences in Chinese society and culture.

“During the drive from the airport, we saw high-end apartments … and the place appears to be cleaner than it was 20 years ago,” said Jaffee, IU professor of business economics and public policy and director of the Institute for International Business in the Kelley School of Business.

Other major differences Jaffee immediately noticed were improvements to the country’s road system and the exponential increase in the use of private vehicles. He also noted that many signs and other written forms of communication are commonly also in English.

“Clearly, the people are much more colorful and have much more Western clothing,” he said, adding that it’s a clear change from when most people wore much more understated attire during his initial visit in 1981.

“Twenty years ago, you would have gone to park like this and everything would have been in Chinese,” Jaffee observed while touring the West Lake area of Hangzhou.  “Only in hotels and restaurants would have you multi-language information.”

China obviously has embraced the notion that English is a key language for doing business worldwide and crucial to encouraging tourism from the West.

“This is one of the birthplaces of civilization,” he added. “But I think over time the differences are less. Coming to the airport, I think all you first-timers would have said this could have been Toyko or it could have been Chicago.”

Who knew that cars were "social vehicles?"

Jaffee, who now is in his fifth decade as an IU faculty member, has traveled and worked extensively around the world, including across Eastern Europe and Asia.

In addition to his visits in 1981 and 2011, Jaffee visited China in 1990 as foreign investment and development started to come into the country. “As it was the year after Tiananmen Square incident, there weren’t any tourists at all, especially from the U.S.,” he recalled.

On the other hand, he noted that China is still coming to grips with its water supply. Bottled water remains necessary, because tap water is not drinkable. Also there remains concerns about the conditions of many public bathrooms, as several women in our group would particularly attest to.

But overall, Jaffee is witness to many improvements for both business travelers and tourists in this emerging economic power.

“This is one of the birthplaces of civilization,” he added. “But I think over time the differences are less. Coming to the airport, I think all you first-timers would have said this could have been Toyko or it could have been Chicago.”

Jaffee also spoke with Greg Andrews of the Indianapolis Business Journal and a similar article about his observations can be found online here.