Yang Dezhi, a native of Nanning city in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, has just returned from the national capital of Beijing, where his only son is working, and is still excited about the unexpectedly shorter train ride which covers 2,500 kilometers.

"When I accompanied my son to college in 1996, it was a tedious 39-hour ride from Nanning to Beijing. We slept on and off for two full nights and an entire day," Yang recalled.

Today, however, the ride is just 30 hours. "It's much easier now for my wife and I to visit our son," he said.

China's railway system underwent four major upgrade projects in the past five years between 1997 and 2002, covering some 13,000 kilometers of railroad and raising average train speed by 25 percent.

Moreover, an additional upgrade project focusing on another 3,000 kilometers of railroad is expected to further accelerate train speed by 2005, and China will then have the world's busiest railway system.

China's train commuters are not the only ones who have noticed the faster pace in the country. Most people in China have noticed that cyber space is running much faster than before.

Wu Yujun still remembers the first Internet cafe in Nanning a couple of years ago.

"It first opened in 1998 at the luxurious Nanning International Hotel," recalled the software engineer, "and it charged 100 yuan (12 US dollars) per hour."

However, what seemed a staggering price at the time did not provide the customers with the information they deserved.

"When I began dialing to establish a connection, I could take my time going to the bathroom -- there was no hurry at all," said Wu. "You could read several pages of a newspaper while waiting for a webpage to open."

Today, Wu's community has a broadband network, and for just 80 yuan (9.6 US dollars) a month, the residents can stay online 24 hours a day.

While the surfers check their e-mail, it is important to note that China's traditional postal service is no longer "snail mail”. Beginning in July 2002, express mail between major cities 500 to 600 kilometers apart can be delivered within 24 hours, thanks to faster road and railway transport.

In Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, an overnight service is available which offers evening pick-up for next morning delivery. The service is designed for urbanites who cannot make it to the post office during the day.

The fast pace of China's economic growth have also brought large apartments and private cars to average citizens.

Figures provided by the State Bureau of Statistics show spending on cars climbed 58 percent in the first nine months of 2002, and private cars comprised 60 percent of total car sales.

Even in less developed regions like Guangxi, the long-aspired dream of owning a big apartment can become reality thanks to a fund set up for housing purchase, which has helped many individuals to finance their homes.

In China's increasingly fast-moving society, the divorce process, too, seems to be both easier and faster. Divorce petitions are now normally approved in one working day, rather than several days or weeks, according to a civil affairs official in Nanning.

"We used to spend a lot of time trying to mediate between the couples," he said, "but these days it seems that most people have thought it over before they come to us. It's not a spur-of-the-moment decision, so mediation effort has become almost unnecessary in most cases."

The fast-moving society can be attributed to China's rapid economic growth and higher quality of life, said Prof. Zhou Keda of the Guangxi Autonomous Regional Academy of Social Sciences.

"It's hard to say whether the facilitation of divorce is good or bad, but one thing is certain: we are becoming less conventional and have more diversified ways of thinking," said Zhou.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2003)