Ding Hao!*Operating in China

From the time that European sailing ships first entered its harbors, China has been an enigmatic land of contrasts to the West.

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is hardly that, but it is a country with a thriving free-market - that still prints the portrait of communist government founder Mao Zedong on its money; that is ruled by one of the world's last communist regimes, but which presides over the world's second largest economy, fueled by a mostly entrepreneurial manufacturing sector supplying the West with cheap, high-quality goods produced by a talented workforce drawn from a population of 1.8 billion people; that occupies a land mass comparable in size (3.7 million square miles) to that of the United States, yet relies on a primitive highway system, railroads in its more remote areas still operating coal-fired steam locomotives and spotty airline service to tie together its far-flung people and cities.

But given the remarkable success of Mao successor Deng Xiaoping's 1978 experiment with capitalism, potential for continued growth (in 2008, despite the worst worldwide recession since the 1930s, the PRC's GDP growth rate was estimated at an enviable 9.