The mainland is poised to become the first country connected by telephones and computers before being fully linked by railways, roads and airports, a strategist says.
The mainland had the ability to develop information infrastructure faster than it could build physical infrastructure, Andersen Consulting's China Strategy Group director, Denis Simon, said.
Information technology was now the greatest force integrating the mainland.
'Information technology will do in China what the railways did in the United States in the 1860s,' Mr Simon said.
'Information architecture is being put in place faster than you see physical roads and airports put in place.' That would place the mainland's economy in the unusual position of generating tremendous growth opportunities just as lagging infrastructure prevented mainland businesses from taking advantage of new operations.
'It is important to remember that China is changing its entire ethos,' he said.
'The economy was purposely built from the 1960s and 1970s to mediate against east-west, north-south movement.' Mr Simon, who advises multinational and domestic mainland companies on strategic business planning, also said continued technology transfers by overseas investors meant the mainland enjoyed greater access to high-technology equipment than any developing nation previously.