Harvest Time Near the Great Wall of China - photo by JoAnn Sturman
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On the back roads near the Great Wall north of Beijing, farmers heaped large piles of soy beans with the crop still attached to dried leaves and stems. Any passing vehicle was obliged to run over or through the five foot high mound which helped separate the beans from the chafe. It must have provided the farmers immense amusement and punctuated their dreary days to see our car careen through their makeshift barricade. Their’s was a difficult life. At the time in 2007, 56% of China’s 1.3 billion people lived in rural areas, but per capita income was only one-third of urban dwellers. Success meant leaving the countryside and moving in droves to China’s already crowded cities.
Great Wall of China - photo by JoAnn Sturman
At this time in the autumn of 2007 the country was in a frenzy preparing for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games to be held in Beijing. Like most foreigners, we were exposed to a highly sanitized, staged view of the rebirth of a nation, one where Communist overlords relaxed doctrinaire economic restraints which had kept the country tightly controlled since Mao’s rise to power in 1949. Despite the trip’s orchestration, one could not help but be impressed by the energy of the Chinese worker and the impressive display of public work projects, but it did not require a particularly fastidious observer to realize these gains came at a price. China’s meteoric rise had been built on cheap labor, production unfettered by environmental or social welfare concerns, and an under valued yuan.
Tiananmen Square - photo by JoAnn Sturman
While seated in our tour bus stuck in stop and go traffic, I spotted a small red disc directly overhead and asked JoAnn, “Is that the sun?” Normally, one is used to seeing this phenomena at dusk or dawn as the sun’s rays strain to penetrate the earth’s atmosphere tangentially, but this was noon on a cloudless day in Beijing. The smog was so acrid and dense it made the Los Angeles air of the 1970s seem like Lake Tahoe. Despite the congestion and pollution, bicycles outnumbered cars by a staggering margin. As China’s prosperity increased and bicyclists became motorists, the air quality was not going to improve.
Beijing's Olympic Stadium avec Smog - photo by JoAnn Sturman
Terra Cotta Warriors - photo by JoAnn Sturman
As the airliner descended, the coal fire haze obscured Chongqing, a bustling megalopolis of 28,000,000 on the Yangtze River, and the point of embarkation for the 410 mile cruise down the river to the Three Gorges Dam. Throughout the voyage we peered through the smokey air toward the shore and observed ubiquitous signs on either side the gorge indicating their precise elevation, for when the reservoir was filled its surface would be precisely 175 meters above sea level. To avoid the rising water, 1.3 million people were either displaced or moved to entirely new villages higher up the steep hills bordering the Yangtze. It was as if all the inhabitants of San Antonio or San Diego or Dallas were forcibly moved and required to leave their homes and possessions to the advancing waters. When it comes to engineering and massive construction, there is no such thing as human rights in the People’s Republic.
Sun and Yangtze River - photo by JoAnn Sturman
Limestone Cavern near Guilen - photo by JoAnn Sturman
Despite the fanfare, the story seemed too good to be true. In a country just as choked for space as for clean air, individual freedom was as rare as good health ("The Sick Man of Asia") and concern for the environment. Prosperity was coming to China, but the Bill of Rights was not along for the trip. And what about the rumors of human rights violations and martial law in Tibet far to the West and away from the media’s prying eyes?
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