BEIJING, March 4 -- At a corner of the Aegean Sea along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf lies the ancient Port of Athens -- Piraeus. Merely a dozen kilometers away from central Athens, it has long been the largest passenger port in Europe, bustling with ferries and cruisers.

Miles away to the west of the passenger terminal, there is also a real buzz in the container piers: towering cranes hoisting containers from giant ships by the water and trucks loaded with containers rumbling around in the yard. One logo is particularly striking - COSCO.

Since the largest Chinese shipper took over container operations at Pier II, Piraeus has enjoyed brisk growth of cargo traffic, and the pace has picked up even further since the June 2013 inauguration of Pier III. It became the third largest container port in the Mediterranean Sea last year, and its potential is yet to be fully tapped.

Behind the upswing of COSCO' s shipping and port services is China' s manufacturing boom, which has turned the once industrially backward country into "the factory of the world" and seen "Made in China" products closely woven into the life and work of people in virtually every corner of the world.

Such epic transformation is the main theme of the Chinese story since the inauguration of its opening-up and reform more than 35 years ago. Yet undeniably, the splendid process has also brought about some side effects that are now too dangerous and damaging to wait another day to deal with.

As Chinese political advisers kicked off their annual national meeting Monday in the Chinese capital, which formally lifted the curtain on this year's "two sessions," Beijing was enveloped in a thick pall of smog.

The inescapable canopy of air pollution is an alarming reminder that, after more than three and a half decades of rapid development, China has now reached a critical juncture similarly significant as the one in the late 1970s. But this time around the holy grail is a sustainable socioeconomic development model.

Late last year, the Communist Party of China Central Committee decided at a key plenary session to deepen reform in an all-round way, pledging to further improve China's economic structure and growth pattern, among others.

During their ongoing annual conferences, Chinese lawmakers and political advisers are expected to pool their wisdom and translate the epochal decision into concrete state policies and measures.

The impact of the decision and the upcoming policies on the world is very likely to equal that of their counterparts three and a half decades ago.