For proof as to how China and the world’s view of it have changed, I need to look no further than my family.

One brother spent three months in China last year. His son lives in Zhengzhou, speaks fluent Mandarin and will marry a young Chinese woman in May. His other son has made several trips to China, started a small business there, and may also be on the road to matrimony with a Chinese woman. One niece spent a summer in China with an exchange program; another went with her church choir; and a third went earlier this year to see the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team play.

China, once so far away and mysterious, is now welcoming and recruiting visitors, so it wasn’t a surprise to anyone when my husband Jerry and I decided to see this rapidly evolving nation of 1.3 billion. Our late-March itinerary included a week on China’s east coast: three days in Beijing, two in Shanghai, and one day each in Hangzhou and Suzhou, both three hours outside Shanghai. Add two travel days and our itinerary was fully packed, but we embraced the pace; we wanted to see as much as possible.

The larger-than-life sights like Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Shanghai skyline did not disappoint, but it was learning about the people and the culture that I found most interesting.

For the Chinese, life is about yin and yang — the unity of opposites, balance.

Cool fruit is served after a hot and spicy meal. Chinese medicine seeks to bring harmony to the body with various herbs and organic potions. And symbols of good luck are everywhere: crimson-colored, tasseled Chinese knots, bright red balloon lanterns and jade jewelry, but the Chinese don’t rely on just superstition to direct their lives. They recognize that it takes hard work to succeed.

But it may be difficult to maintain yin and yang with such rapid change.

We have no personal comparisons of Old China and New China, but we’ve heard repeatedly about the immense transformation that has taken place in but a few decades. Our guide, David, stood on the Bund in Shanghai, a wide waterfront walkway along the Huangpu River, and swept his arm across the scene before us.

“None of this was here 15 years ago,” he said, indicating the massive and futuristic skyscrapers that stood on the other side of the river.

These gleaming buildings stand in stark contrast to the fast dwindling number of hutongs, old neighborhoods (some would say slums) in China’s major cities. Most have been bulldozed to make room for high-rise residences, but a few have been preserved for the tourists to see what urban life was like in days-gone-by.

The disappearance of the hutongs is a double-edged sword for the families who lived in them for generations. Former residents may now have running water in their new apartments, but the social fabric of their lives has been forever altered. Although the younger generation had left anyway for more modern dwellings, their grandparents miss the close social contact of extended family and friends.

It isn’t difficult to see, even if you are there for a short time, how flourishing capitalism in China has greatly benefited a few, moderately benefited some, but left many others behind. Seeing urban China now, vibrant and colorful, it’s hard to imagine what it must have been like during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) when life was an endless gray and conformity was king. Our guide, David, born in 1967, told us of his childhood when his family at times had nothing to eat but silkworm pupae, made barely palatable by boiling and adding garlic.

I’ll talk more about our trip to China, which cost less than $2,000 per person, in future columns. In the meantime, if you are interested in a similar adventure, visit the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce site at www.carlsbad.org and click on “Trip to China.”