I'm just back from Beijing and recognizing that there is a different China that is unfolding from what I've seen and experienced over the past decade during multiple trips there.

As China's citizenry became more confident, a new assertiveness and, yes rudeness, took hold where it was ok to fight...

California Bay Area residents have all sorts of places nearby as summer weekend getaways. There's Big Sur, Yosemite, Redwood Forests, Half Moon Bay, Pebble Beach and Napa Valley. Nearby Lake Tahoe has normally been reserved for wintertime weekends, when the Sierra Nevadas beckon skiers and snowboarders.

With the economy...

Best known as a place to see pandas, sample spicy Sichuan food, and trek to Tibet, Chengdu is aiming high, trying to take on a new identity as a tech innovation hub in western China, following the lead of Silicon Valleys in Shanghai and Beijing.

This surprisingly modern city...

Today, in our always on world of communications, you can travel to even remote 15,000-acre ranches in Wyoming and still stay connected.

Type-A personalities and workaholics might fear they'll miss a VIP conference call if they take a few days of R&R for some fly fising, horse back riding or...

I recently took the high-speed train from Beijing to Shanghai and was surprised by how comfortable and enjoyable this trip of only five hours was.

Though traveling at 186 miles per hour, it's a bit like floating. You can barely feel the train moving, though the rapidly...

My column at Forbes on the real reasons why Google is quitting China has generated a strong response. Check out the comments if you don't believe me. (Click here.)

I asked a number of leading venture capitalists in China and Silicon Valley if they agreed with my premise:...

Super-size is the latest trend among venture capital shops that are still capable of raising funds in the current depressed economy. That's how I interpret recent developments such as the NEA's newly raised $2.5 billion fund plus a $1.2 billion fund for Norwest Venture Partners and $1.1 billion for Khosla...

The concept of customer service is still fairly new in China. That's most noticeably true if you're traveling on business. Even the five-star hotels in Shanghai and Beijing struggle to train staff in such basics as English-language skills but also etiquette body language and a perennial -- when best to...

If the recent National Day celebrations in Beijing weren't convincing enough evidence of China's rapid ascendancy on the world stage, then the super-charged spirit among Chinese entrepreneurs and investors in the San Francisco Bay Area had to be. Indeed, during the week-long holiday, seemingly half of China's venture capital community...

It's taken a long time, but Silicon Valley has finally taken off its blinders and recognized that there are other tech clusters out there. Today, nearly every venture capital firm along the famed Sand Hill Road is in China, India -- or both. Bring up the topic of Asia tech...

McCain's presidential running mate Sarah Palin "packed a punch" at her convention speech -- and mentioned my hometown of Lancaster, Ohio! I had no idea that a Lancaster area resident -- former Air Force fighter pilot Tom Moe -- was a fellow prisoner of war with McCain at the Hanoi...

The Beijing Games were billed as the world's first web 2.0 Olympics -- the time when social networking over the Internet and video streaming would shine as they reflected China's glory of hosting this grand event. But I found it not so.

Facebook was slow and often not accessible. Email...

What a whirlwind weekend in Beijing! While everyone was at the Games and the city was empty, I took a close-up tour of a few of the city's trendy new spots. Some are copycat ideas, others are purely original--just like the tech startups I write about in Silicon Dragon.

It was a week of surprises here in Beijing, where I'm writing about everything BUT what's going on at the Olympics Village. The normally congested city is a ghost town as visitors expected for the Games didn't arrive -- guess they had trouble getting their visas with the tighter security...

China was largely missing from talk at two major conferences in California's Bay Area this week -- the Fortune Brainstorm Tech and the AlwaysOn Summit at Stanford University. Yet China is emerging as a tech trend-setter.

Instead, it was Twitter, clean tech and cloud computing that took the spotlight...

Just about every Fourth of July, I make the trek from New York City to my home state of Ohio. This year, I made this journey with fresh eyes, having spent a good deal of time in the booming economy of China in recent months.

It's always a bit...

One place that could surely use a technology upgrade is the Chinese Consulate in New York City. With the Olympics in Beijing fast approaching, the line of people applying for visas snakes out the door and halfway down the block on Manhattan's W. 42nd Street.

Recent rules changes for...

China now leads the U.S. for technological leadership. I'm not the only one saying this is a leading edge trend that needs attention from our top policy makers and businesses. Now, a study by the Georgia Institute of Technology affirms it.

Ranking 33 nations on technology competitiveness, infrastructure, socioeconomic...

The best and brightest U.S. entrepreneurs might have to take steroids to keep up with their counterparts in China. For energy, motivation and raw talent, American entrepreneurs just cannot compare.

One of the superstars of China's digital media boom is Joe Chen. A maverick entrepreneur who reads Warren Buffet...

It's one of those clear, blue-sky days in Beijing -- one of the very few I've seen during the last two weeks, where a grey dusty hue has covered the landscape (sandstorm or not). I take care to stay indoors as much as possible, and when riding in a taxi,...