It has been 740 years since Hangzhou last reigned as the world's most important city. It was then the capital of the world's wealthiest and most developed nation, China, during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). This week Hangzhou has again been the center of the world's attention thanks to the G20 Summit.

The world's spotlight falls on Hangzhou's most famous historical landmark, the West Lake, as well as its most famous local company, Alibaba, the world's largest e-commerce company. Alibaba's founder and chairman Jack Ma, is a Hangzhou native. He has boasted "Hangzhou has become the driving force of China's new economy," and suggested G20 visitors rise at 5 am to walk around the West Lake, to appreciate Hangzhou's scenery, ancient and modern.

Alibaba has changed Hangzhou and changed China. But, to grasp the full extent of that change, world leaders should venture out from Hangzhou and visit some of China's smallest, poorest and most remote rural villages. Here Alibaba's impact is perhaps the most transformational. Alibaba has made a special effort to bring the benefits and convenience of online shopping to China's rural families, the 45 percent of China's population that still live on the land.