"Hello sir . Checking in?" Sophie asked in flawless English. She was an impeccably attired Chinese 20-something working the front desk at the Shangri-La Beijing Hotel. "Shi de (yes)," I confirmed in my awkward Mandarin. Sophie was one of about a dozen sharp, well-educated, perfectly bilingual young Chinese professionals serving guests as they entered.

My experience on this recent business trip was much like those I've had at scores of hotels in dozens of cities throughout the most populous country in the world. Virtually every child in China begins studying English as a second language in the third grade. Senior- and middle-school graduates are expected to have an English vocabulary of 4,500 words. It should not be surprising, then, that beyond its spectacular economic progress, China is growing more connected to rest of the world.

Recent news of U.S. plant closings and growing trade deficits with China has left many Americans nervous about China's inevitable emergence as a global economic and political superpower. What most don't realize, however, is that an economically prosperous China is also rich with opportunity for us. The United States has a competitive advantage relative to China in many knowledge-based, high-value-added industries such as biotechnology, software, financial services, agriculture, real estate development and healthcare. Because of China's increasing wealth and appetite for these products and services, American firms involved in these industries have significant opportunities there.

Since china's ascension as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001, news stories about the construction of the mammoth Three Gorges Dam project, the development of the Pudong area of Shanghai and China's construction boom have focused our attention on China's growth. Unless you've recently been to China, however, it's difficult to appreciate how massive China already is and how astonishingly fast it is growing. Consider the following: China has 11 cities with populations of more than 2 million-the United States has four; China has 23 cities with populations between 1 million and 2 million-the United States has five; China has 44 cities with populations between 500,000 and 1 million-the United States has 22.

Beijing is home to nearly 75 skyscrapers and almost 1,000 high-rise structures. Many more are either planned or are under construction and scheduled for completion by the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. By some estimates, China is consuming half of the world's annual production of concrete and one-third of its steel output. During the 1980s, the outer city limits in Beijing were encircled by a bypass highway known as the Second Ring Road. Today Beijing is currently constructing the Sixth Ring Road in order to accommodate the city's massive influx of people and its boom in construction.

Beijing is just one of a hundred cities in China growing at this breakneck pace. And Beijing is second in size and in growth to Shanghai, China's "Paris of the East." On my last trip to China, my business companion remarked that the national symbol of China should be the crane . the construction crane, that is. What's more, China has been growing at this rate for more than 10 years. According to The World Bank, the U.S. economy was nearly eight times larger as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) than that of China at the end of 2003. However, between 1994 and 2003, China's GDP grew at an average annual rate of nearly 9 percent, far faster than the average U.S. GDP growth rate of just over 3 percent.

Even though China has grown faster than any other nation during the past decade, there is reason to believe that it will expand even more rapidly in the future. Here's why: Despite its manufacturing prowess, China's financial markets (stock and bond markets) and financial institutions (banks, insurance companies and investment firms) are currently weak and inefficient. As a result, China's financial system largely fails to channel vital capital to rapidly expanding small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)-constraining China's growth. But all of that is about to change.

Under the terms of its WTO membership, China has just begun to open its financial institutions and markets to foreign competition. In June 2005, Bank of America purchased a 9 percent stake in the China Construction Bank. While at first glance, this may sound like a negative development from China's perspective, it is not. This partial acquisition and the many others that are sure to follow will result in an infusion of foreign capital, technology and management expertise that will shore up China's technically insolvent banks. Similar acquisitions and development will occur in China's securities and insurance industries. Eventually these changes will lead to a marked improvement in China's financial system, resulting in greater availability of capital for its rapidly growing and cash-hungry SMEs. Ultimately, this should result in faster overall economic growth for the Chinese economy.

To maintain our competitive advantage, the United States should invest further in our intellectual infrastructure. We should invest more in areas such as early childhood education, primary and secondary school reform, research and development, emerging technology and our universities. We need more private sector job training and greater portability of benefits for our workers. We should also extend various kinds of targeted assistance, such as retraining and placement assistance, to workers who lose their jobs. At the same time, other social institutions, families, schools, local communities and businesses must all play a role in preparing the next generation for a world in which education and training will increasingly determine the success of both individual citizens and the nation as a whole.

Several years ago, before China became a daily fixture on the nightly news, William C. Merwin, president of Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), embraced the potential opportunity that China's awakening implied for the citizens of Southwest Florida. Collaborating with FGCU benefactor Robert Gow, who has significant business experience and interests in China, Merwin initiated discussions to create joint academic, business and cultural linkages between FGCU and Nankai University-one of China's very best educational institutions. In September 2005, Merwin, together with a team of advisors that included Dean Richard Pegnetter of the FGCU College of Business, Dolph von Arx of Naples (the former chairman, president and CEO of Planters LifeSavers) and Joseph Catti, president of Northern Trust Bank in Fort Myers, traveled to Tianjin, China. There, they signed

a partnership agreement with Nankai University.

Beginning in fall 2006,

FGCU will send its first "Executive Faculty"-current and retired top managers and CEOs-to China to participate in short seminars with top Chinese business and government executives. In addition, FGCU and Nankai University will offer executive education programs for both U.S. executives (on how to do business in China) and Chinese executives (on how to do business in the United States). These executive education programs will incorporate networking opportunities for Southwest Florida business and government representatives. During fall 2007, FGCU and Nankai University will begin offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs, as well as study-abroad opportunities, faculty exchange opportunities and collaboration on research.

Throughout its history, America has never withered in the face of a challenge, and this is no time to start. The investment required in our intellectual infrastructure will not be cheap nor will financing it be easy. Indeed, in the present fiscally constrained environment, making the necessary investments will require hard choices that result in shifting more of society's resources to education, training, technology and research to take full advantage of the opportunities available in today's global environment and to meet the challenges posed by China.

Daniel J. Borgia is the director of the Institute of Chinese Studies in the College of Business at Florida Gulf Coast University.