I'd give it a few years. I've been spending about half my time down here for the past year, and pretty much every mid-sized+ city is undergoing the same breed of construction that struck SH between 1995 and 2000 and BJ during the 8 year run up to the Olympics. This means that life isn't so pleasant now, but when all is said and done, these cities will be clean and far better connected to each other and the outside world than they are today. I also predict that Guangxi will attain provincial status within the next ~2 years because it is a key resource for Beijing wrt SE Asia (for trade and politics).