Hengfeng Town: ‘It’s different in China’
HENGFENG, Jiangxi — According to the Jiangxi Statistical Yearbook and State Statistical Bureau, the southeastern province of Jiangxi — which boasts the largest gold, silver, copper, plutonium, uranium, lead and zinc resources in China — has an average annual household income of RMB 4678, just a tad shy of $600 a year. But according to my former student Gerry (Hong Min) and his friends, that figure seems a bit off. It should be a about $120 lower.
Traveling from Hangzhou to northeast Jiangxi’s Hengfeng, a small town of 100,000 or 200,000 — no one seems to know — the great divide that exists in China becomes quite clear. As John Edwards might say, there are two Chinas. Three, if you want to put Shanghai in a category all by itself.
“Do you like hot food?” Gerry asked me as one of his uncles drove us to Hengfeng from the Shangrao train station. “My mother was worried you may not like spicy food.”
07.28.2004, 4:50 PM · Jiangxi, Stories, The Trip · Comments (6)
