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It is hard to understand why people complain of improved living standards. But until one goes through it, one tends to think in hypothetical terms. In the 1980s, I dreamed of a Chinese metropolis adorned with air-conditioned shopping malls and grand hotels with even grander lobbies. Whenever I walked through a residential district with street peddlers and littered sidewalks, I would say to myself: Someday this will change and it'll be immaculate. This day is arriving faster than I imagined. The pace of gentrification is happening so fast all over China, especially in the nation's megacities, that I'm getting pinched, rather than delighted, by it. Certainly, our cities are more photogenic now than a decade or two ago, but at what price are we paying for the improvement? Merely five years ago, the place where I work was surrounded by countless restaurants. At night in summer, students from a nearby university would show up drinking beer on the sidewalk. It was a community oozing with vitality. I remember taking a new colleague to one of the restaurants; most of the dishes were priced no more than 9 yuan. Now, after several changes of ownership and nonstop renovations to the interior, prices have tripled. The food looks nicer, but is no more delicious. It's not an exaggeration to say the improvement has gone mainly into the facade. And it is still among the affordable areas for dining out. Where I live, the average price for a restaurant dish is now around 50 yuan, double the pre-Olympic level. Sure, I can choose to eat in, but every time I shop for groceries in the neighborhood supermarket, there is always a rude awakening. One thing I'm sure: whoever keeps track of CPI do not come here. | 
