"Chris Ruffle and his team at Martin Currie, a Shanghai-based investment firm, have a dozen dedicated China analysts that comb the country's 32 provinces for investment ideas.

"In fact, management conducts over 1,000 company visits each year and won't invest a single penny without personally checking out an operation first-hand.

"The managers at the China Fund avoid inefficient, state-owned enterprises and place special emphasis on smaller entrepreneurial companies with promising growth trajectories. So the portfolio is full of future stars.

"But you'll also find turnaround candidates that are poised to benefit from regulatory changes or other positive catalysts. In any case, portfolio holdings generally have healthy balance sheets, accountable management and above average growth characteristics.

"But CHN comes with a twist that few other funds offer -- direct investments in unlisted companies. In fact, about 15% of the portfolio is dedicated to private stakes in promising firms.

"Right now the fund holds 72 stocks, concentrated largely in the consumer, healthcare, financial and industrial/material sectors. These are all policy-sensitive areas that stand to benefit from the government's robust stimulus spending.

"The diversified portfolio represents a healthy sampling of 'A' shares and Hong Kong-listed 'H' shares, as well as companies based in nearby Singapore and Taiwan.

"The fund rolls up its sleeves and finds smaller domestic companies that are more leveraged to changes taking place on the ground in China.

"And while the country has come a long way, there is still much to look forward to. Consider that nearly half of the nation's rural villages don't even have a paved road to the nearest town.

"Then there's the sheer size of the consumer base, which is only beginning to loosen up spending habits (China's personal savings rate, above 30%, is the world's highest) as per-capita incomes rise and the government implements a social safety net.

"Of course, none of this stopped the Chinese market from imploding last year. But that pullback was long overdue. Chinese stocks had soared six-fold over the prior two years and valuations were overly stretched -- with average P/E ratios touching 65 in November 2007.

"Today, the growth story is still intact, but prices are much more reasonable. And no other fund has harnessed China's growth quite like CHN.

"Manager Chris Ruffle recently pointed out that while China's economic fundamentals 'may have been disregarded during the selloff, they will figure strongly in the recovery.' I couldn't agree more, and have added CHN to my global growth portfolio."