PapaWasabi

There are probably millions of villages in China, all wanting to somehow escape their poverty. Some of these villages are quite big. I recall hearing that there are over 800 towns in China with greater than 1 million population. Having been in many of these, it is no wonder that they are not considered cities. They are simply dusty small towns that go on, and on, and on. Beyond that are the villages, and very few in Northern China have any charm that is normally associated with village life. They are generally cold, dirty and desperate. My hosts often tell me that teenage girls in the village can be had very cheaply, even by Chinese standards. Life can be had cheaply as well, joke the drivers of newly imported German cars. The haze in most places is constant, and on even the sunniest of days the sky remains unseen behind a brownish-grey blanket of gauze. The sun is obviously up there, and somewhere the sky must be blue. But, though there is not a cloud to be seen, the sky remains smokey, and creates, at least for me, a constant feeling of oppression.

Still, enough sun comes through to grow some very nice tomatoes, as this picture shows. This village was greatly hoping that their tomatoes would fetch a good price, and allow them to increase their yield next year. The crowd in the background of 50 or so people simply stopped whatever it was they were doing (or possibly stopped doing nothing) to come out and have a gander at us.