Down from the Mountain in Rural China

Featured - Main Slider, Society & Culture — By Ryland Barton on June 21, 2011 1:29 pm

Farmer Lan Xianghong sits on his motorcycle at the bottom of the road that leads up to his mountain farm. The government is relocating farmers in rural China to small villages in an effort to consolidate farmland and improve living conditions. Photo by Emily Mitis

By Ryland Barton
For ChinaInFocus and KUT News

All across China, the government is relocating citizens to ease growing pressures on land use—and often inciting a public outcry. In May, a man from Fujian Province suicide-bombed a government building after officials demolished his business. But in mountainous Zhejiang Province, some citizens are more than glad to be moved closer to villages with higher standards of living.

Podcast: Down from the Mountain in Rural China