Vast Difference Between the Cities and Villages of China

In 2001 I had the opportunity to spend several weeks traveling throughout China and Tibet. It is quite striking the dramatic difference in the daily lives of the people living within China. The lifestyles of people living in the densely populated urban areas such as Beijing and Xian is very much like what one finds in most modern American cities. However, the conditions of the more rural areas I traveled too such as Chen village and the Buddist temple at Shao'lin are unlike anything you would find here at home and are rather more reminiscent of a poor African village. While the urbanites of the metropolitan areas enjoy widespread use of the luxuries we take for granted from electricity to running water, the peoples in the rural farming communities often had little or in some cases, no direct access to either. I will never forget walking through Chen village along the streets during the the harvest while all the streets were covered in the very grains of the harvest to dry...for all to travel on be it by foot, car or even common herd animals.