China is big. As of two years ago (2006) China had a population of 1,313,973,700. It was the first to reach the 1 billion mark. Coming in second was India. Put yourself in their shoes:

~You and all the kids you know are single children. In an effort to keep the population from going through the roof, China passed a law that states that each married couple is allowed only one child.

~Right now, your land has a population density of about 127 people per square km. That's not the biggest person to land ratio on this site, but it's pretty big.

~Your grandparents dote daily on you, because you are the only grandchild they have.

~The air you breathe everyday is really bad. The only other world capital with worse air quality is Cairo. Cars are one of the leading sources of what's polluting your country.

~You live in the North. The area around you is horribly parched. It could easily become the world's biggest desert.

~In school, you keep hearing about how China is polluted. Your teacher told you that it is only getting worse. He said that growing factories are the things that pollute your country.

China is trying desperately to fix this. Your country mandated that the factories put out 10% less pollutants. It has also launched a huge project, estimated to cost $60 billion. If it succeeds, this project should transport water in a series of lakes, canals, and rivers from the Yangtze River to the Yellow River. Many other projects are also in place to try to deal with these issues, and many more. China has a lot of work to do, but it does have a future-a huge population future-but a future, nonetheless.