In some regions, a desire for more sustainable growth was evident even as the national economy weakened rapidly last year. Drastic action was taken in Shanxi province, for example.

Shanxi's major industry, coal mining, was restructured to close smaller collieries. Consequently, Shanxi's economy contracted 4.4 percent in the first half of 2009. For the whole year, the province's GDP grew 6 percent, 2.7 percentage points lower than the national average.

Hu Angang, director of the Center for China Study at Tsinghua University said the transformation is crucial.

"A raft of uncertainties will hit China if it doesn't change its model of economic growth to something more rational and environmentally friendly," he said.

Key to the model of growth transformation, as the effect of the 4 trillion yuan (586 billion U.S. dollars) fiscal stimulus package wanes, is private investment, some scholars have noted.

Jia Kang, director of the Institute for Fiscal Science Research at the Ministry of Finance, said private investors are still not active but are less jittery than they were at the height of the economic downturn.

"Of course, it is too early to say private investment has revived," Jia said.

Continued weak global consumption could still take a toll on growth engines like the export-oriented Pearl River and Yangtze River deltas.

"China's recovery is not yet firm," said an analyst in Zhejiang's Yiwu City, home to the world's biggest small commodity market. "Globally, the economic recovery has not spurred a full revival of consumption."

Analysts said demand for Chinese exports may not see significant improvement for three years as U.S.-style credit-based consumption may be gone forever.