Planet Earth 2007: China's Changing Landscape

BEIJING, April 18, 2007 — -- The 13-hour flight from New York to Beijing is too short.

I arrived last Sunday evening, safe from the storm bearing down on the East Coast but still unprepared for China. The feeling is a familiar one, especially on overnight flights: Go to sleep over the ocean, awake in a different land. I have had this sensation on every trip to India, to Pakistan and South Africa, and certainly on this, my first trip to China.

I am in China for ABC's Earth Day special. "Nightline" producer Howard Rosenberg will join me from Washington, a veteran journalist who has been most everywhere and seen most everything except mainland China. So we're in it together. Fortunately for me, Rosenberg comes electronically equipped with two computers, and he knows how to use many cell phones. I'm not entirely sure he doesn't have a flyaway satellite dish tucked away in his luggage.

In the arrivals hall, I was greeted by a young Chinese woman bearing a sign for "Mr. Cynthia McFadden." Close enough. I followed her through the pristine airport, down to passport control.

The first form to be handed in was a health form required, I am told, since the outbreak of avian flu a year or so ago. It asks if you've had any contact with chickens, and whether you or anyone you know has avian flu. It also asks if you have HIV or AIDS, headaches or a variety of other ailments, including "psychosis." Pause.

The bored young woman who collected my form didn't look down to see if I was a health risk. The form did say I could go to jail if I lied.

I quickly passed through the passport line for foreigners … run very efficiently. No wait at all. No questions asked.

Behind the immigration officials, there's a hand-painted mural of the Great Wall. And -- surprise -- the first storefronts I see are Starbucks and Kentucky Fried Chicken concessions in the airport.

Rosenberg and our team will meet up here in Beijing, where ABC has a first- rate bureau. We fly to Guilin, 1,000 miles to the south, Thursday, where we will broadcast live from the Li River as part of the special. It is the first time China has ever permitted a live broadcast out of the country from this location.