Michael G. Ormerod
Cycling in Guizhou
The land of the water buffalo
Updated impressions of China
I have recorded my impressions of China on previous trips to Yunan and Guangdong and Guangxi and will not repeat them here. Some of the wealth being generated by China’s phenomenal economic growth seems to be trickling down to the rural areas, as evidenced by the satellite dishes, mobile telephones and motor cycles in the small villages. Incomes are obviously still low and the fields are worked by back-breaking manual labour. I assume that money is brought back by men working for low wages in the factories in the Pearl River Delta. There was also evidence of changes in agricultural practice. Plastic strips were being used to keep tobacco plants weed-free. It was odd to see polythene greenhouses while in the next field a water buffalo was used for ploughing.
I also noted that on the edges of the town and cities, there were quite attractive, externally at least, large blocks of flats; a move way from the brutalist architecture of an earlier era.
Statue of a water buffalo, trained to fight
Ploughing with water buffalo in the nearby field
Polythene greenhouses
Planting rice seedlings by hand