China has attracted global attention in recent times for its inspiring and staggering achievements in the economic arena. The impeccably organized Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the prospects of the biggest expo in history in Shanghai this year have fired the public imagination and worked wonders for national pride.

Yet, a quiet revolution that has underpinned many of these achievements has gone relatively unnoticed. This is the transformation of China from a largely illiterate country in 1949, when the People's Republic was established, to a country where almost all children attend school for nine years and the literacy rate of young people aged 15 to 24 is 99 percent.

These historic achievements have contributed to China's ranking in the Human Development Index (HDI) rising to 92nd out of 180 countries.