In the Mountains Under the Clouds
rural Yunnan Province develops
Southern Yunnan Province should be an economic powerhouse. A funnel for Vietnam and Burma, industry and immigrants find their pathways through the region into and out of China. Agriculture is booming; rice, bananas, tea, and other crops dominate the region's economy and the produce is exported internationally. But the region, from the rice terraces of Yuanyang County southward and in the west where Xishuangbanna has arisen as one of the country's and world's primary tea suppliers, is a maze of impenetrable mountains latticed with bumpy dirt roads that turn hours-long trips into days-long affairs. All that's about to change, as Tong Guo Tao told me in the courtyard behind his modest breakfast cafe in Xinjie, a tiny agricultural and transportation hub near the Vietnam border. Tong Guo Tao moved to the region about a decade ago, coming from frozen Harbin in China's north, chasing economic opportunity. Over the past 3 years, he's watched a multi-lane freeway being built almost directly above his shop. The freeway, part of a massive recent effort to modernize Yunnan Province, will completely bypass most of the southern part of the province. The trip between the provincial capital of Kunming and Vietnam will be cut in half, but in so doing, the myriad villages benefiting from passing traffic, will dry up.
Ethnic minority Hani women carry leaves and branches alongside heavy trucks on a dirt road undergoing improvement construction in rural Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. Dogs bark from the roof of a building in Sheng Cun Village, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. An ethnic minority Hani woman carries a baby along a street in Xinjie, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. People wait for a shipment of shoes and other goods sent on a passenger bus from Kunming to Xinjie, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. The remote village relies on shipments of goods on periodic passenger buses to fill the markets and shops. A mother and child shop at a market in Pangzhihua Village, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. A boy stands in the muddy streets of Sheng Cun, in Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China, while workers unload a truck full of concrete to be used to improve roads in the area. "Sheng Cun" is translated as "Successful Village" in local tourist brochures. Men gamble on market day in Pangzhihua Village, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. A tailor of the Hani ethnic minority sews traditional women's clothing in her shop in Sheng Cun Village, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. Shoppers walk past a display of shoes for sale in the central market in Xinjie, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. A foggy view of Xinjie at night in Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. Seen through a bus windshield, a man and dog walk down a road in mountainous rural southern Yunnan Province, China, near the Vietnam border. Local minority workers work on a construction project on a dirt road connecting rural villages in Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. Roads in the area are being improved to increase tourism to the region's rice terraces and improve travel between the many villages in the mountainous region. A man looks out over new development outside Pangzhihua Village, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. Rice terraces stretch to the horizon in the mountains in rural Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. A man's hat rests on a fence post during work outside a small house in Pangzhihua Village, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. A woman carries eggs while walking along a dirt road outside Sheng Cun Village in rural Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. Workers gather sand to be used in road construction in rural Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. The Yunnan government has been building modern freeways and highways throughout the province to improve trade and and tourism in the region. A truck transports produce between farms and villages and cities in rural Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. A dead pig carcass lies in a creek in Xinjie, Yunnan Province, China. An ethnic minority Hani woman carries goods on her back in the early morning in Xinjie, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. Women shop at a market in Pangzhihua Village, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. Farmers sell bananas at a collection point in the mountains of rural southern Yunnan Province outside Xinjie, Yunnan Province, China. A public service film about medicine, health, and hygiene, plays on a temporary screen in a park in Hekou, Yunnan Province, China, on the Vietnam border. Shacks line the banks of the Hong River in rural mountainous southern Yunnan Province, China, near the Vietnam border. Workers transfer bricks from a truck to the roadside in Xinjie, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China. Workers wait in line at the border to take goods into Vietnam from Hekou, Yunnan Province, China. Shoppers walk along the streets of Hekou, Yunnan Province, China, on the Vietnam border. Construction workers walk down a dirt road in the mountains outside Xinjie in southern Yunnan Province, China. Donkeys stand below a large freeway under construction above Xinjie, Yunnan Province, China, and the Red River (right). The Yunnan government has been building modern freeways and highways throughout the province to improve trade and and tourism in the region. When this freeway opens to traffic, after more than 3 years of construction, the trip between the Vietnam border and Kunming, Yunnan's capital, will be cut from about 12 hours to 4 hours. A man smoking a cigarette exits a public restroom in Xinjie, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China.
Pictures available for license at Photoshelter
photos by M. Scott Brauer
+86-13770324102
scott.brauer@gmail.com
http://www.mscottbrauer.com/
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