In April 2004, I was privileged to spend two weeks in China, visiting the cities of Shanghai and Beijing. Like many western travelers before me, I was stunned by the revolutionary urban development. In Shanghai, architectural marvels - some monstrous, some sublime - were shooting up from the ground all over the city replacing old hutongs and street markets with pedestrian malls. Beijing had preserved more of the old, with the Forbidden City and numerous temples dotted among the modern government buildings. Amidst the concrete, the beauty was everywhere.