Two sessions, three key topics: Poverty, pollution, security

As the two sessions - the annual gatherings of the country's top legislative and advisory bodies - proceed, it's good to see where the country has come from in the 40 years since opening-up became a national policy.

In 1978, China's GDP was just shy of 368 billion yuan ($58 billion), and just four decades later, it's over 82.7 trillion yuan - a 225-fold surge.

And in terms of global ranking, over the past four decades, China's GDP notch on the economic totem pole has soared - ratcheting up from an "alsoran" position to No 2. In short, someone is doing something right.