3 weeks before its launch

The World Expo 2010, its theme being „Better City – Better Life“ will open its gates in Shanghai on May, 1st . The city expects to receive more than 70 million visitors to this exhibition of industrial achievements until the end of October. More than 240 nations and a large number of international organizations will participate in the presumably largest world fair in history.

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With the Expo 2010, Shanghai wants to present itself as a cosmopolitan center of commerce and as a gateway between East and West that the city used to be in the 1930ies. Billions of Euros were invested into the city’s infrastructure to make sure that the world fair will be a success.

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It seems long ago now that China was called the „sleeping giant“. The communist People's Republic has awaken long since and makes the Western industrial nations tremble. In the year of crisis 2009 the economic growth in the USA and Europe was on the decline, while China even improved by 8,7 % per annual average. In the Year of the Tiger, starting on February 14th, the Chinese New Year, the Chinese will once again demonstrate power and strength, qualities attributed to the tiger.

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"He who sleeps doesn't sin" - and doesn't have to face what's going on around him. In their own peculiar way, the Chinese are true specialists in looking away and falling asleep. And, as this selection of sleepers shows, this is true for almost every situation in which they find themselves ...

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China will play an important part in the negotiations about the world climate at the climate change summit in Kopenhagen. It has replaced the USA as the world's no. 1 emitter of CO2. The policy of an accelerated economic growth – a rapid industrialization and the unlimited exploitation of natural resources – have damaged the environment and led to an enormous air pollution in the urban agglomerations, contaminated and dried up rivers and radical impairments of the landscape.

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The period after the the downfall of the Imperial Qing-Dynasty in China in 1912 is characterized by violent conflicts between the political parties finally ending up in the Chinese Civil War that lasts until 1949 when the Communist Party seizes power. In 1931 Japan annexes the Northern part of China, Manchuria, which is established as the Japanese puppet state "Manchukuo" in 1932. During the Sino-Japanese War 1937-1945 China sinks into poverty but it does not surrender. The first republic of China was marked by enormous social constrasts and the antagonism between confucianism and western ideologies .

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The Old town of Kashgar threatened by demolition. The city is considered to be the historical and cultural center of the Muslim Uyghurs who resent the economic and cultural discrimination exerted by the Han Chinese minority.

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From Cosplay and Anime to Pop and Punk: With regard to fashion and music, the Chinese youth embraces all fads and trends.

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When it comes to appearances, the individual look counts more than anything else for China's youth. This is especially true for their hairstyles.

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Traditional Medicine still plays an important role in China. Many diseases are treated with acupuncture, moxibustion or fire-cupping.

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Despite some progress in recent years, it is still very difficult for old and chronically ill people to partcipate in the social life of China. This is even more true for people with mental or physical disabilities. Most of them live segregated in welfare institutions.

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More than 20 million migrant workers have lost their jobs since the beginning of the financial and economic crises. Now they have to go back to their home villages where they will face even more poverty and despair.

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The development of renewable energies plays a key role for China's economy. Some of the pictures by Sven Tetzlaff on this topic were taken at a facility of Yingli Green Energy, a manufacturer of solar cells.

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Working in nature: These women seem to enjoy their work at a tea plantation near Hangzhou. Photos by Sven Tetzlaff.

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Cosplay has become the latest fashion among young men and women in urban regions of China. These pictures by Sven Tetzlaff were taken in Hangzhou.

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Tough excercises: Young girls practice contortions of their fragile bodies during a training session at a ballet school in Hangzhou. Photos by Sven Tetzlaff.

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The spectacle of the Olympic Summer Games in Beijing was the absolute highlight of the year 2008 in China. However, the year was also overshadowed by devestating catastrophes such as the earthquake in Sichuan in May or the snow desaster at the beginning of the year.

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December 1978 marks the beginning of one of the most successful economic experiments in modern history. Under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, China’s CP opened the way for economic and social reforms that would effect amazing growth rates in the following years.

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Thanks to Deng’s reforms, the living standard has improved for many Chinese citizens since the 80ies. The poverty rate dropped from 53% of the population in 1981 to 8% by 2001.

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Qingdao at the East coast of China is a city with a German past. Many buildings in the so-called “German Quarter” still bear witness of Germany’s colonial rule between 1897 and 1914. The world-famous Tsingdao brewery was orginally founded by the Germans.

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The unique landscape of Mount Sanqingshan National Park in the northeast of Jiangxi Province was included in UNESCO's world heritage list in 2008.

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The famous Hakka-Tulou buildings in Yongding were built in two or more concentric circles as a protection against both enemies and natural desasters. In 2008, some of them were included in UNSECO's world cultural heritage list.

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At first sight, the new Chinese National Stadium is reminiscent of a huge bird’s nest. 91.000 spectators can be seated here when the 29th Olympic Games will be opened on August 8, 2008. The stadium was designed by the Swiss architects Herzog & Meuron, the costs will exceed 320 million Euros.

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Also from the inside, the Grand National Theater lives up to its nickname: The Ufo is located in the middle of Beijing, in the vicinity of Tiananmen Square.

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Beijing’s new Central Business District (CBD) was supposed to become the „Manhatten of Asia”. Today, it is called SOHO City, in reference to the planning office which designed the new district. About three quarters of foreign companies that invest money in China are located here.

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It took only four years to build the new Terminal 3 of Beijing’s International Airport. The imposing construction of glass and steel was designed by the Britsih star architect Norman Foster. Its size equals about 170 soccer fields; up to 65 million passengers yearly can be handled here.

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Education for the simple folks: In this English class in Beijing, the oldest student is 89 years of age.

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At Beijing’s Changping Vocational School, young women between the age of 18 and 25 are trained for the Olympic Summer Games. Here is where they learn the correct ways of walking and smiling for the award ceremonies. The training is tough: every movement, every surtsy, and every bow are practiced to perfection.

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The countdown is running. After several delays, most of the new buildings for Olympia 2008 will be opened shortly. Some of the spectacular stadiums are already known under cute nicknames such as “the Bird’s Nest” for the new central stadium in Beijing, the “Water Cube” for the swimming hall, or the “Ufo” for the cycling stadium in Laoshan.

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Over the last few years, no other major city in the world has changed its face so much like the Chinese capital. Everything has to look perfect when Beijing will host the Olympic Games this coming August. About 50 billion dollar were spent on new sports arenas and buildings and city’s infrastructure. Image is everything – this is a lesson the Chinese authorities have learned from the West.

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In the public sports schools of the country, young children are trained to become successful athletes. Usually, they live apart from their parents and may only visit them during vacations.The training methods are tough and merciless, some excercises are even painful. But since success in sports is sometimes the only way to escape poverty, most parents willingly relinquish the education of their offspring to the state – even though they are well aware of the ordeals their children have to undergo in these schools.

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In China, there are probably more than 200 million migrant workers. They work for a famine wage and their life is a day to day struggle for sheer survival. Our photographer Tang Haowu has documented workers on a construction site near Shenzen with some impressive black and white pictures.

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The Chinese stock markets are boiling. Ordinary people quit their jobs to become day traders, hoping to make the big money quickly – or to lose their complete savings. Experts are watching the phenomenal development of the stock markets in China with a mixture of fear and fascination.

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For these disconcerting images, our photographer Chang He received the second prize of this year’s „World Press Photo“ awards in the category “Nature”. His pictures document the desastrous conditions in many Chinese zoos. Despair, helplessness, fear and loneliness are reflected in the eyes of the caged animals.

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Back-breaking work for a pittance – the ugly side of the booming economy in China. These workers in brick-yard in Linfen in the province of Hubei are practically owned by their so-called “employers”.

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UFO in Beijing: The scaffolds have vanished, and the impressive facade of the National Grand Theater finally shines in the sunlight. After four years of construction, the controversial building will be opened officially in July 2007.

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In light of these images, it seems somewhat inappropriate to talk about China in terms of a „threshold country“. Here, the most modern buildings and industrial facilities are built, and billions of dollars are invested each year into the country’s infrastructure.

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During the Cultural Revolution, religious movements were violently oppressed in China. Nowadays, the government generally tolerates the various religious practices of its people, even though there are some notable exceptions such as the Falun Gong movement, the followers of the Dalai Lama or the Muslim Uigurians, who are accused of being separatists.

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For foreign car makers, China is something like a gold mine. The production costs are cheap and the demand is steadily rising. But in the car industry globalization is not a one-way street anymore. Chinese car manufacturers such as CBA and SAIC invest a lot of money to conquer western markets. Just recently, the Brilliance limousine BS6 by CBA has been introduced in Erope.

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In the early 80ies, Shenzhen was a small fisher town with 30.000 inhabitants; today, more than 11 million live in this city which boasts the fourth largest harbor installation in the world.  Due to its proximity to Hongkong, the city became the first “Special Economic Zone” in China. Besides Hongkong, it is the city with highest per capita income in China.

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In the studios of the painters in Dafen, one can find an extraordinary selection of materpieces of classical and modern art - all copies, of course. Here, near Shenzen in the south of China, more than 8000 painters work for a piece rate of about 80 eurocent per picture. Most pictures are masterful copies designed for export to Europe and the U.S where they are sold cheaply to buyers from every walk of life. Our photographer Yu Haibo - who won the second prize of the World Press Photo Awards in the category "Art and Entertainment" - has documented the artists and their unique line of work in the "art factories" of Dafen.

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Feburary 18, 2007 marks the beginning of the Year of the Pig in China. The Chinese celebrate their New Year over a period of several weeks, culminating in the lantern procession: Young men, dressed up as dragons, are dancing through the streets. The Chinese calendar is based on moon phases. Therefore, New Years day falls on different dates each year.

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The new National Grand Theater, designed by the French architect Paul Andreu, has evoked a lot of controversy. For some, this construction is a beautiful "pearl" of modern architecture which symbolizes  China's economic success story; for others, it is an ugly "duck egg", which does not fit at all into the historic environment near Tiannamen Square. The images of our photographer Jörg F. Müller document the construction process of this spectacular building.

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The flip side of the enormous economic growth in China is the pollution that has reached alarming levels in China. According to a statistic, this problem causes $2 billion in damages every year. Moreover, about 400.000 Chinese die every year as a result of the pollution problem. In our data base, you will find many images by different photographers that document the continuing ecological destruction in China.

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One highlight of the Chinese kitchen are the so called „Hot Pots“. There are many variations of this dish in China, which originally comes from Mongolia. People are sitting around a pot in which some hot, spicy soup is boiling, and they add some raw meat and vegetables. The „huoguo“ is not only a true delicacy but also a social experience that no China tourist should miss. The images of our photographer Zhang Xiaowen show the most famous variation of this dish, the huoguo from Chongqing.

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The black and white portraits of our photographer Zhang Xiaowen were taken at the coal mines near Chongqing. They show men who every day risk their lives in the dangerous coal mines. The work is poorly paid, and the miners are forced to work under a lot of pressure because the country still depends to a high degree on the domestic coal production. There are hardly any security regulations or protective measures for these workers. Most of them are cheap migrant workers whose lives don’t seem to count for much.

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At first sight, the new Chinese National Stadium is reminiscent of a huge bird’s nest. 91.000 spectators can be seated here when the 29th Olympic Games will be opened on August 8, 2008. The stadium was designed by the Swiss architects Herzog & Meuron, the costs will exceed 320 million Euros. The images of our photographer Jörg F. Müller also focus on the details of this gigantic ferroconcrete construction.

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The origins of the New China can be traced back to Deng Xiao Ping, who initiated the most important economic and cultural reforms some twenty years ago. Especially in the cities, Deng’s “opening to the West” has led to a lifestyle that is strongly influenced by Western culture.

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At night, the young Chinese celebrate themselves and their pop culture as if there were no tomorrow. In this respect, the night life of Shenzhen is no different from that of Western cities such as New York, London or Paris.

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In the early morning, there are only few traces of the vibrant life of the city of Shanghai with its 10 million inhabitants. Even the boradwalk at the harbor is almost devoid of people.

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The media frequently report on China as the new and upcoming economic world power. Our partner agency CNS provides us with pictures that reflect the various aspects of China’s vibrant economic life.

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Due to the fascinating interplay of structure, color and light, the landscape photos of our partner agency Phototime appear almost surreal.

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The intriguing story of the little boy Tingbao Zhang, who was admitted as the youngest member to the famous Beijing Magic Martial Arts group because of his exceptional talent. The pictures by our photographer Feng Chen document the daily training of the little boy: Images of joy, agony, and loneliness.

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Once the naval of the universe for Chinese people, this former symbol of imperial power still captivates the imagination of people around the world. The photos of this series are courtesy of our partner agency Readfoto and the photographer Hui Haijie.

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A masterpiece of landscape architecture, photographed in winter by Readfoto photographer Nieming.

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The famous Unseco world heritage site on the Western bank of the Yi River. Impressive pictures by our photographer Hui Haije.

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The in-vitro fertilization of the Panda bear is an amazing success story of Chinese animal medicine. These pictures by Readphoto show the female Panda on the surgery table, and they observe the adolescence of her offspring.

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