Westerners visiting China for the first time often seem surprised at the country’s relative lack of poverty. Chinese cities do not have beggar populations on the scale of India’s, nor are conditions in their shantytowns as dire as those in the favelas of Brazil. While the country’s much-touted economic growth has clearly not been distributed equally, a quick visit to any Chinese metropolis leaves the impression that poverty is less of a concern there than in many other places around the world. But venturing into the countryside, particularly in China’s west, reveals a different ... Read More
