During the 40-minute drive from Beijing Capital International Airport to the city center, my Chinese tour guide, Ma, had plenty of time to relate his views on Beijing's rapid development.
"With the Olympics next year, and then the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010, Beijing will be good for a few years, but after that it will end up just like Tokyo," he said.
Now, generally, I'm a satisfied long-term Tokyo resident, so I needed to double-check that his dismissive tone did mean that he thought this was a fate worse than death.