Mary Kay Magistad

Mary Kay Magistad

Mary Kay Magistad has been The World's Beijing-based East Asia correspondent since 2002, focusing especially on a rapidly changing China and the impact of China's rise on the region and the world.

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Rural China and Upper Class City Dwellers

May 25, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Discussion

7 comments for “Rural China and Upper Class City Dwellers”

  • Nick Hutchins

     Very poor and patronising comparison of life in China, as if it’s terribly shocking that rural dwellers in Jiangxi have less money than shoppers in Sanlitun in Beijing. I could just as well take pictures of people spending ridiculous amounts of money on Oxford Street in London and place it alongside pictures of poor villagers in Romania. How very shocking!

    • 0randomem0 xx

       http://goo.gl/etuiY | If you came here from that BBC article, things should make sense.

    • http://profile.yahoo.com/DGSDHAO2OYUGWNDYV3MVHF5WCE theefunklord.com

      But you just compared London, in England, and Romania- a completely different country. 

      If you’ve ever been to China, it’s not patronising at all. Take a flight, and drive 2-4 hours away from the city you landed in. I never visited this province yet it looks very familiar..the scenes are the same.

      It IS shocking, which is the point.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/ABKS2WE26GNX5UX7JAXRW4TUIA roberta

    Exactly, the comparison in the BBC article is more than appropriate as we`re talking about a country that proclaims itself as “communist”. I come from Brixton, in London and I`m currently living in a village in Northern Shaanxi, quite similar to the one shown in the pictures. No need to go all the way to Romania, there`s plenty of shocking neighborhoods in London too.

  • thisistheotherjess

    Following the BBC article, I have to ask how Jiangxi province is considered “south-west China.” I can see Xunwu as being south-west Jiangxi. But Jiangxi is north-east of Guangdong, and nobody calls Guangdong “south-west China.” Jiangxi probably fits best in east or south-east China.
    South-west would be some place like Yunnan.

  • Richard Bourne

    What is interesting is that the Communist party now protects and enforces the system of order they were brought to power to get rid of.  

    What is shocking is that with all the wealth in central Beijing, you need only take a commuter bus to the suburbs a few km away to find over crowded slums without heat or sanitation.  Running water is common but sewers are just ditches next to the street. 

  • Christian161719

    Exactly,China is making great  effort to minimize the division between  its cities and rural area ,to tell the truth ,from the buildings of Xunwu in the pictures above, they are in a moderate level in mordern villages of China.