Back from Guilin now and feeling worn out and looking a bit like a farmer with sun-baked skin. I managed to find some of the people we interviewed 20 years ago and only one of them remembered us which is surprising as we were the first westerners some of them had ever seen.
The villages looked a little better than before and had paved paths and new houses. Most of the rice fields had disappeared and been replaced with fruit trees – mostly pomello. Everyone we met was extremely friendly and welcoming.
Some of the villagers will stand out from the crowd for many years and I will write about these in a separately blog entry.
The three villages we returned to were Lang Shi, Leng Shui and Da He Bei and the standard of living in all of them had improved greatly. Some of the houses were still in a terrible state, without sides, doors, walls but the people’s lives are getting better year on year.
As suspected, lots of people have moved from the villages to the big cities like Guangdong, Shenzhen and Qingdao, to work in factories. There are only a few young people in the villages and those who are there work in tourism. This includes working in hostels, operating boats and taking photos. At least this increase in tourism has resulted in keeping many of them in the villages.
There is still poverty though and few people we met still struggle to find enough to eat. Coming back from such villages puts everything into perspective. We complain about the simplest things when we all have enough to eat and walls to our house.
Now all that is left to do write the report on the expedition.