300,000 containers are still transported to the Far East every year, but there are now 500,000 coming in the opposite direction. The emerging economic performance of the so-called BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) is leading to new ways – not only for goods transport but also in the areas of communications and culture. It is not only the managers of globally active companies that face the challenge, but everybody involved. That means all of us. This essay explores how the East changed the West.