PICTURE CHINA

The former British colony of Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 as a “Special Administrative Region” but still remains a world apart from the mainland. The Chinese government has allowed the area to remain a capitalist and quasi-democratic entity under the policy of “one country, two systems”, partly because Hong Kong’s robust economy is the single largest source of outside investment in the PRC and partly because the government would like to use Hong Kong as an example to show Taiwan than it can play nice and entice it to rejoin the mainland.

For such a small place, Hong Kong is extremely diverse- both in its people and its landscape. While the population is over 90% Chinese, Hong Kong has an international flavor as a result of its long occupation and large groups of immigrants from Europe, the Philippines, Africa and the Indian subcontinent. While many areas do live up to Hong Kong’s image as a densely populated city of towering skyscrapers, you don’t have to go far to find a secluded beach or a mountain hike through a sub-tropical rainforest.

All in all, Hong Kong is very different in many ways from the rest of China but has, and will continue to play a role in shaping the country in the future. Its strong economy has been a model for the liberalization of China’s economy, which has resulted in the explosive growth of the past decade. It is the hope of many mainlanders that the government will also follow the model of Hong Kong and introduce new freedoms to go along with their economic might.

The Mongkok district of Hong Kong is among the most densely populated places in the world with over 50,000 inhabitants per square kilometer. As a result of limited available land, Hong Kong’s city planners have decided to look skyward to accommodate the burgeoning population and the Mongkok area is no exception. The area is a dense garden of modern skyscrapers and aging residential blocks where whole families often share tiny apartments. On the street level the area is a lively shopping district with whole streets dedicated to markets specializing in pet fish, electronics and knock-off designer clothing.

The Pearl River Delta is one of China’s most developed areas and the provincial capital of Guangzhou is one of the countries main business centers. The area started to boom due to the economic reforms of the 1980’s and has not looked back in becoming a sprawling city dedicated to China’s new economy. After the Asian financial crisis in the 1990’s many businesses from Hong Kong sought to relocate to nearby Guangzhou in search of lower costs on the mainland and the area has since become a major center of manufacturing. Almost one-fifth of the cities population is comprised of migrant workers from the surrounding provinces who supply the workforce for the Guangzhou economy.

Less than twenty years ago the town of Huadu (formerly Huxian County) was just another rural Chinese village on the outskirts of the city of Guangzhou. Today it is a self-contained city of over 720,000 residents and an example of the “New Towns” that are being created throughout China to accommodate the surging urban populations. While some of the new housing is in the form of the bland Communist-style apartment blocks, which can be seen throughout China, many complexes cater to China’s neuvo riche and are styled after Mediterranean villas complete with red-tiled roofs and baroque fountains.

While ninety-two percent of the Chinese people belong to the dominant Han ethnic group, there are 55 other recognized ethnic minority groups scattered throughout the country. Muslim Uigur and Mongolian people populate the north of the country, Tibetans in the southwest and Miao in the southern areas bordering Vietnam, Laos and Burma. These groups have historically faced great hardship at the hands of the Han and have had their cultures threatened by Han resettlement. In recent times several groups have been granted status as Autonomous regions and are regaining some control over their lands.

The area straddling the border of Guangxi and Guizhou provinces in Southern China is the home of the China’s Dong minority group and the Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County. The Dong are renowned for their colorful dress, distinctive wooden architecture and incredibly engineered terraced rice fields.

In the villages of Zhaoxing, Che De, and Tang An the Dong people live much as they have for hundreds of years. Farmers work the fields, women use natural indigo dye to make traditional clothing and old men use bamboo to make baskets. Although many things remain the same, the modern world has made inroads even here. Satellite dishes have appeared on some houses, electric mills have replaced the hand milling of rice and in the towns accessible by road, villagers are prepared to greet the occasional Chinese tour bus with handicrafts to sell.

Every fifth day the dusty riverside town of Chong An is transformed into a bustling market as hundreds of people of the Miao ethnic group from the surrounding villages descend on the town. Villagers arrive in their distinctive traditional dress by road, by boat and from countless mountain paths. They come to sell their crops and to buy clothing and household goods.

There are separate sections of the market dedicated to everything that one might need. One street is filled with women selling vegetables, another with dyed cloth and clothing and another lined with butchers. There are areas where live pigs, poultry, fish, cats and dogs are sold and there is a street lined with barbers, dentists and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine.

While the market serves a very functional purpose for the villagers, it is also a social occasion. Old men smoke and admire each other’s caged songbirds, groups of children buy sweets and there are even gambling tables where people wager a few Yuan on the roll of the dice.

In the backstreets of the Chong An market there is an entire areas dedicated to medicine and dentistry. Some villagers come for traditional Chinese medicine such as herbal remedies, cupping and acupuncture while others come to have an old tooth pulled or have a new set made. Far from the sterile hospitals or modern traditional medicine clinics in China’s large cities, this brand of medicine is practiced out on the streets for all to see.