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Wen's Lens
 Tracks of change
For the railway industry, some words and phrases essentially mean the same thing - be it development, modernization, reform or change.
Time for tea
December 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of China's reform and opening up.
Growing pains
If there is growth, there will always be growing pains. Trying to fit a large piece of furniture in a residential flat was one such pain.
Questionable futures
One of the key tasks of China's economic reform is to create jobs for the nation's younger generation.
Fighting the cabbage wars
Urban consumers may be so used to choosing items from the supermarket shelves that they've forgotten how their parents used to buy vegetables.
Service with a smile
The service staff throughout the State sector simply did not have to make the gesture, much less crack a smile for customers.
Ready-to-wear
Made-in-China garments and textiles may still be favored items for middle-class shoppers during the current financial crisis.
Backward into the future
In the early days of economic reform when the phrase "market economy" was still a taboo, roadside markets were spontaneously formed by grocery vendors.
Home sweet home
Not many industries can be as both important and hard to manage as housing, as many economic watchers have begun to realize.
Shear delights
Pedicure facilities are easily spotted in middle-class residential areas and in areas surrounding expensive office buildings.
Stitches in time
Buying new clothes was not easy in China through the 1960s and 70s. Fabrics to make them were generally unavailable, even if people had the money.
Play days
We have a change this week. Instead of having one picture of the past and another of the present, we have two taken in 2005.
A case of space
People don't usually change their small habits. They don't even do so when many other things change, and even when major policies have changed many times.
The kids are alright
From time to time, the Chinese-language press runs so-called surveys about the attitude of college students to sex.
In with the new
People have long been arguing about the disappearance of China's old cities.
Road to modernity
Though Beijing authorities said they would not lower their environmental standards after the Olympics, they may have forgotten to mention the traffic.
Affordable leisure
Large sporting events are festivals in the modern time. When athletes are busy competing with one another, other people have fun.
By leaps and bounds
Gold means business. It also does in sports.
Moving up
People hear a lot of talk about China's factories. Here are two contrasting views of what it was like in the past and what conditions are now just 20-30 years later.
Setting a clean example
How will Beijing Olympics benefit China? How will the Chinese see the coming sports event other than as a world athletic contest?
From guns to easels
798 is now a favorite hangout for Beijing-based artists, art dealers, art lovers and tourists.
Memories for sale
However the inflation factor is weighed, retailers have had a good time in the last three decades, with the country's total retail volume swelling almost 50 times.
No business like show business
An area in which China has yet to see as much development as its overall economy is the business of entertainment and culture.
Endless, ancient toil
Farming in China still has a long way to go to become truly modernized and efficient. Feeding the 1.3-billion population still remains a challenge.
The line forms ... where?
One Chinese habit that foreigners complain about, I've heard, is their reluctance to line up in an orderly fashion.
Turning the page
For people outside China, China is always China. But Chinese people who have experienced so many changes may feel as if they live in a different country.
New hearts, new hands
The two photos that we have for this week are both recent ones, taken by our photographer Wang Wenlan from the epicenter of the Sichuan earthquake.
The task ahead
Victims of the recent Sichuan earthquake are laying the ground for rebuilding their lives.
Same challenge, new tools
Our photographer Wang Wenlan left the black-and-white photo you see here for me the day before he went to the Sichuan earthquake disaster zone.
PLA to the rescue
The recent killer earthquake in Sichuan province quite naturally reminds people of a similar one that struck Tangshan.
Achin' to make bacon
For more than 2,000 years, the predominant way to produce meat has been through household-based pig farming.
Market growth
This was the beginning of an ordinary day in Beijing in 1984 when private vendors and their logistical contractors were ready to enter a market before it was open to customers.
Fashion frenzy
What you see in the black-and-white photo isn't a prison riot scene. It was an ordinary shop - ordinary in Chongqing in 1985.
New worlds
Don't be surprised. This is not an oddity column. Shown here are not quintuplets, or sisters from the same family.
Movers and shakers
Although they work on many construction sites in China, and many of them have been working in industrial jobs for their entire lives, they are still called farmers.
Dialing a memory
When did most Chinese have to use the public phones to contact each other, as what you can see in the black-and-white picture?
Wen's Lens
How is China different from 30 years ago? Business columnist You Nuo answers this question with economic data and images by senior photographer Wang Wenlan.