The noise--all that banging and clacking-- is the first thing that hits you when driving into Chungshan.

Roads are being laid, houses built and foundations dug whichever way you turn. The sounds of traffic and people, the honking horns, the welding of metal, the cement and the steel bars, the airborne dust... it's as if the city were one gigantic construction site.

Here the young cadres drive Toyotas. With cellular phone in hand or beeper strapped to the waist, they're talking long distance amid the clamor. And after they close a deal with an outside businessman in an over-air-conditioned restaurant, they head for the karoake bars, discos or nightclubs.

Changing Chungshan: When you're visiting town, going from one air-conditioned room to another with the local cadres and businessmen, you notice that the meals are often ordered in advance. Course after course arrives, but they're never finished.

In a hotel in Shihchih, an intellectual is gesturing at the magnificent decorations and the numerous waitresses. He asks provokingly, "Could it be that you don't have places like this in Taiwan?"

The workers of the road crew you see when leaving the restaurant make .8 Renmenbi a day. That meal you just ate might cost their year's salary. When you leave the hotel, you find that the public toilets along the way are all without doors. Those bedraggled young couples, infants in arms, are "outside workers" coming to Chungshan to make a living.

In the prosperous and bustling district of Shihchih, a poster exhorts people not to engage in the seven vices: robbing, stealing, raping, cheating .... You can see posters like this in front of all of Chungshan's 33 town halls. On seeing his guest's eyes focus on the poster, Lo Jun-liang, the office director of "The People's Government of Tsuiheng Village," asks with some chagrin, "Do you not have this in Taiwan?"

But such embarrassment rarely surfaces through the overwhelming pride and excitement about economic development.

An up and comer: Like all of the major towns in the Pearl River Delta, Chungshan has been buffeted by economic reform.

The Pearl River Delta of Kwangtung Province has been at the vanguard of mainland China's development since economic reforms began in the 1980s. Because Shenchen and Chuhai at the mouth of the Pearl River were not enough to meet demand, development gradually spread inland to Tungwan, Foshan, Fanyu, Shunte and Chungshan. In this crowd, Chungshan is an up and comer.

Of the 1,680 square kilometers of Chungshan, 68 percent is flat. Chungshan's new port provides sea access to Hong Kong and Macao, and on land, you can drive south to Macao or north to Shunte, Foshan and right on through to Canton. At the end of the year, when completion of the Chungshan-Fanyu Highway and the Nansha-Humen Bridge connect the opposing river banks at the mouth of the Pearl, you will be able to drive to Canton in an hour and Shenchen in two.

Anyone can sniff that change is in the air.

And the booming real estate market is its most pungent component. In the southeast of Chungshan by Tsuiheng village, the birthplace of Sun Yat-sen, three-story villas can fetch anywhere from 100,000 to 600,000-700,000 Renminbi (the equivalent of NT$3 million). In Chungshan's principal business district of Shihchih, an offer of 5 million Renminbi (the equivalent of NT$25 million) for one mu of land (the equivalent of 667 square meters) won't get a nibble. These are prices you'd expect in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Chungshan yuppies: "There's a future in investing in Chungshan!" says the young "General Manager Ye" of a Chungshan business. Just three years ago he was running a bread stand, but two to three years ago he "read the times correctly" and bought a few buildings in the busy Shihchih district. That was during the economic slowdown after Tiananmen. Now his real estate company, employing a work force of many dozens, is already well known about town. He comes and goes in cars, hobnobs with government officials and isn't stingy about throwing his money around. People often joke that he has "made a fortune off Tiananmen."

Businessmen like "general manager Ye" are not unusual. Xiangshanbao, Chungshan's sole paper, describes them as the offspring of economic reform, "young entrepreneurs" who can "spin four wheels, drink four pints, dance four dances, sing four songs and insist on four points." These "young entrepreneurs" are what everyone would like to be. The same article also reported that in a fancy Shihchih nightclub, during the soft music and beautiful dances, the customers play a game called "gift auction." A beautiful girl will bring out delicate lighters and other gifts that aren't really of much value and sell them to the customers for whatever they can fetch. They don't come cheap. You can buy a toy train for 500 Renminbi, a standard monthly wage. The Xiangshanbao calls the young people who play this "crazy" games "Chungshan's new yuppies."

Proud of what? Not even Tsuiheng Village has remained free from the effects of economic reform.

Chungshan City (a county before 1988) counts as rather large among the cities and counties of Kwangtung Province. For administration, it is divided into 33 townships, which are then further divided into villages. The Tsuiheng Township (whose historic Tsuiheng Village, the township's namesake, is the site of Sun Yat-sen's birthplace) has 28 villages in all.

The Tsuiheng residential district and Chungshan Memorial Junior High, which are slated for preservation, face rice paddies across Tsuiheng's principal thoroughfare, Chihwan Road. But in the past two years, because the Tsuiheng Township government has aggressively pushed economic reform, hotels, villas and the like have been built on the land around the historic area. Signs for "Tsuiheng Garden Estates" or "So-and-so's Real Estate" are prominently placed in front of the old homes. "Construction will start before long," says Lo Jun-liang.

This historic district looks much like it did in the early days of the Republic of China. But for lack of maintenance, the buildings are in an various states of disrepair. Tourists walking around the area feel as they have entered a time tunnel!

Move out, not in: Xiao Runjun, vice-director of the Museum of the Former Residence of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, says that "the People's Government of the Tsuiheng Township" has stipulated that people "can move out but not in" in order to protect the site as an historical relic. Currently, there are more than 100 people who live in the old residential district.

The people living in the original houses of the village often mention that they would like to make improvements on their homes, but none are allowed. Some of the wealthier residents live elsewhere, renting their houses to outsiders. Others have been turned their houses into metal or electronic workshops. The vice-director of the museum, Xiao Runjun, hopes that when the people in the area decrease to a certain level, preservation work can begin. But the job won't be finished, he says, until everyone moves out. "Wouldn't it become a lifeless glass bubble of a relic?" asks a visitor. "That would be better than ever more people crowding in until the village is completely ruined," Xiao responds.

The old residential district, of course, is not the only township neighborhood to feel the effects of reform. Lo Jun-liang points out that the township government has divided the township into four major districts as part of a development plan.

A hen that lays eggs: Lo Jun-liang explains that residential construction and tourism are being given priority in development. The investment conditions laid out by the township government, however, clearly give incentives to industrial investment because--in Lo's description--"industry is a hen that lays eggs!"

With so much land being developed for use as factories, villas and tourist areas, what will the area's original farmers do?

Lo explains that through "land use conversion rules," the land can be bought up by the government and the farmers can change professions. He estimates that after the development plan has been completed, 20 to 30 percent of the local farmers will be able to change professions to work in factories or the tourist industry.

After a year, "there will be factories between the villas on the foothills and the tourist pier on the coast," says Lo Jun-liang, describing the beautiful future ahead of the town.

If you pass through farming villages, you will not be surprised to find that Tsuiheng's residents have big plans.

"This hill is going to become land fill for the sea over there."

"Those people's houses at the bottom of the hill don't look good. When the industrial district is put there, they'll all be moved."

Occasionally you'll catch a glimpse of a factory emitting multi-colored pollution and thick black smoke. Ask the government official in charge about it, and you'll get this answer: "We have made laws to ensure that we don't attract polluting industries. Those must be old factories."

Tsuiheng people offer even more optimistic answers about the preservation of agricultural land. "China has 1.1 billion farmers. If some of Chungshan's farmers change professions and some of its fields are converted to other uses, it isn't going to present any big obstacles!" In any case, the land being converted in Tsuiheng consists entirely of dry fields or fields with low productivity. If productive fields were converted, "we'd also develop tidal land to make up the difference." Lo estimates that the plans to develop the Tsuiheng Township will affect 5,000 mu of fields, but he insists that residents needn't fear: More than 7,000 mu of newly productive land will be claimed from the sea.

A magnificent 20-story building is already being planned for a site on the Chihwan Highway not far from Sun Yat-sen's birthplace, and work on it will start soon. Four other such high rises are also in the works.

Rather than tourist hotels or office buildings, they're going to be residential towers to hold overseas Chinese from Hongkong and Macao and Tsuiheng farmers who have changed professions.

"Why would a farming village want such buildings?"

"Because that's the way they do it in Hongkong and Macao!" answers someone in real estate.

Does Taiwan have over-air-conditioned hotels with gaggles of waitresses floating about like clouds? Does it have thieving and robbing and the other five vices? Of course it does. Walking through Chungshan is like walking through Taiwan's past. Yet in times of confusion, one longs more for that "tiny little hamlet, surrounded by mountains and sea... blessed with beautiful scenery."

Location of Tsuiheng Village, Chungshan City, Kwangtung Province [Picture]

[Picture Caption]

Chungshanese are very proud of the high class restaurants in the two tourist hotels of Chungshan's small downtown district.

The Chihwan Road is the principal thoroughfare of Tsuiheng. It has been overburdened by the increasing numbers using it over the last two years and is now being widened. This kind of major construction can be seen all over Chungshan.

Chungshan's topography combines mountains, plateau and plains. In the old city district, where no high rises have yet been built, just keep your chin up and you'll get a good view of the mountains.

The abyss of capitalism: A sign warning about the "seven vices" is posted in a busy spot in bustling Shihchih.

Chungshanese are very proud of the high class restaurants in the two tourist hotels of Chungshan's small downtown district.

The Chihwan Road is the principal thoroughfare of Tsuiheng. It has been overburdened by the increasing numbers using it over the last two years and is now being widened. This kind of major construction can be seen all over Chungshan.

Chungshan's topography combines mountains, plateau and plains. In the old city district, where no high rises have yet been built, just keep your chin up and you'll get a good view of the mountains.

The abyss of capitalism: A sign warning about the "seven vices" is posted in a busy spot in bustling Shihchih.