Factory shows nation on right track

I still remember the unpleasant smell, dim lighting, dirty floor and waves of nausea that washed over me when I visited a cigarette factory in my hometown in mountainous Southwest China in the early 1990s.

I was on a tour to teach students about what was then considered a model manufacturing plant as the country took steps toward industrialization.

So my expectations were fairly low during my recent visit to a factory in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone in Cambodia, which, in eyes of many Chinese, has some resemblance to the China of the past.