Here's a striking industrial stat: in just those two years between 2011 and 2013, China poured roughly 6.6 billion tonnes of cement. Think about that for a moment—it actually exceeds the entire 4.4 billion tonnes the United States consumed across the whole 20th century. A hundred years of American infrastructure development versus a single two-year sprint in China's construction boom. The scale difference tells you everything about how rapidly emerging economies can mobilize resources and reshape their physical landscape.