As I was saying …

I made my first trip to Beijing, a city of 20 million people, in 1999. I went because NRCA had been asked to co-sponsor the first trade show conducted by the China National Waterproof Building Industry Materials Association; our arrangement was to help sell exhibit space to companies outside China. At the time, 1 million bicycles were reported to be in the city; a visitor was much more likely to get rammed by a bike than an automobile, and many of the main thoroughfares were largely unpaved.

Fast forward 16 years to the 2015 China trade show. There are virtually no bicycles to be seen; instead, visitors experience gridlock as Audis, BMWs and Lexuses compete for road space. Smog is a continuing problem here as the country figures out how to wean itself from using coal as a primary energy source. An impressive Olympic Village was created to host the 2008 Summer Olympics with an incredible array of brand-new structures. And as the country continues to urbanize, tower cranes are everywhere.

At the trade show this year, there was talk the roofing industry is slowing down. The construction market only is expected to grow 6.5 percent during the next few years rather than the 10 or 11 percent the country has experienced the past few years. The daily newspaper reports the government's new five-year plan is intended to double China's gross domestic product and per capita income during the next decade.

At the first trade show, we saw a lot of coatings that were marketed as roof systems, seemingly well-suited for the ubiquitous concrete buildings there. We also saw 15-mil EPDM sheets and other first-generation Chinese-made materials that had a life expectancy of only a few years.

But the market has matured to a remarkable degree. Now, there is talk of labor shortages in a country of 1.4 billion people. There is talk of a need for training, and NRCA has helped fill that need. Architects are hungry for roofing information. FM Global has opened a full-scale facility, and several U.S. manufacturers have established a Chinese presence.

There also is talk from Chinese roofing material manufacturers of developing markets in the U.S. for their products. That's inevitable, I suppose, and surely one of the outcomes of a more sophisticated marketplace. Back in the early 2000s, I had the opportunity to visit the Chinese minister of construction who said he understood China needed to move toward a "market economy." But, he said, it would have to be done the Chinese way.

After 16 years, what is most obvious is the Chinese understand they are an inexorable part of an international marketplace. That is entirely as it should be. Their challenge, like ours, will be developing and sharing technology when appropriate and keeping a strong, open line of communication with industry partners globally.

About 30 people from the Chinese roofing industry will be visiting the 2016 International Roofing Expo^® this year. Let's be sure to go out of our way to make them feel welcome.

Bill Good is NRCA's CEO.