The Chinese are a dignified, courteous, respectful, pleasant, affectionate, modest, enthusiastic and industrious people. A casual visitor cannot escape from the impression that the economy of the country is booming. But this economic boom has become a significant danger to the agricultural basis of Chinese civilization. The migration of farm-workers into the cities as porters to earn better wages is evident everywhere. Little groups are seen in the streets with their shoulder poles, offering to carry a tv, washing-machine, or any other consumer item, home for the buyers.
Agriculture is the basis of China's wealth and civilization.
Every inch of the soil is being cultivated. Even the spare ground just off the runway at Beijing airport has a thriving crop of sweetcorn. Travelling through the countryside in Sechuan, I was starkly aware of the many thousands of years of the art of agriculture having moulded the landscape. It was mind-boggling to see the scale of the irrigation engineering. The scale of the fields, the water-bearing field systems and the proportion of the crops are a massive work of art.