Chinese TV: latest from the crankshaft factory

This time last week, I left Hangzhou to head home from a very large, very empty airport. It was modern, full of familiar brands and had coffee at £4.50. Like other parts of the new China, it felt too big, and I wondered if it had been built to please some local baron.

A little vignette: I like Chairman Mao badges and always look out for them in Shanghai (below). On this trip, I'd found a pack of ten for 25 yuan (£2.50) - "my last price", the woman told me. Round the corner was the same pack for 10 yuan. I bought two: it is called the market.

China reminds me of Victorian Britain when it was truly 'the workshop of the world'. For Victorian Huddersfield, read Hangzhou. Industrial smog is accepted as part of industrialisation. Heavy lorries pounded the road outside my hotel day and night.

And, like Victorian Britain, Chinese television is a dynamic mix of public and private. The state-run channels - CCTV - are divided by genre. No BBC1 mixed schedules: entertainment, youth, news, military (yes, soldiers in uniform reading the news), classical and English.

I understood the latter but wasn't sure how much I enjoyed it. Chrome spinning titles, glossy sets and glossy presenters, not all of them Chinese (many Australian). Where were the graduates of the school for announcers I visited?

I saw discussions and debates that were far too cordial. More heat, and less studio light, please! Note to CCTV producers: just because somebody speaks English doesn't mean they are interesting.

And the news? It was out of sync with the world news cycle by a day or two (thank you BBC News online for keeping me up to date), and used all the technology, with satellite links etc - but not always to good effect.

News judgments and values? Well, my favourite item had some poor young female reporter sent to the local crankshaft factory to report on how well it's doing (helping to make all those lorries that kept me awake). It reminded me of Midlands Today 40 years ago.

The entertainment shows are either variety with a camera pointed at them - think The Billy Cotton Band Show - on several stages or derivatives of Blind Date or Japanese-style gameshows. Then there were young men with strange haircuts getting 'down with the youth' (think Janet Street-Porter 20 years ago).

The private channels are faster and pacier. I couldn't say whether they are better or less political. Macao TV played some vintage English films: Sunday afternoon schedules round the clock.

There you have it. China was a cacophony - on the box, on the roads, and from the factories. Britain from 1830 to 1980; in just three decades. Much to take away and think about.

John Mair is a senior lecturer in broadcasting at Coventry University and visiting professor at Zhejiang University of Media and Communications in Hangzhou, southern China.