Hongcibao

In some ways this was the epitome of China in 1990 and a fearsome omen of China in the future. A coal mine on the edge of the world, Inner Mongolia. A remnant of the ancient civilisation, the Great Wall here a mere heap of mud bricks leaving a rather weak trace on close inspection although still a landmark in the greater scheme of things. I had to wade across the river to reach the village, clamber over the ruined wall...to be greeted by children who seemed never to have seen a foreigner before. Water carried in buckets from the river to irrigate the fields, now twenty years later apparently a victim of desertification, maybe covered in sand dunes?