Small by Chinese standards, with an urban population of some 800,000, Guilin would be considered a substantial city in many a nation elsewhere.
However, as with many cities in China, it was considerably smaller not many decades ago. The product of China's rapid urbanization, for many of Guilin's city dwellers the countryside isn't far behind — and some bring it with them.
The Urbanization of China
guilin
China is urbanizing so rapidly and with such a huge population that the movement of people from the countryside to the cities has been called the greatest human migration in history. In just a dozen years, from 1990 to 2012, China's urban population doubled from some 26% of the nation as a whole to over 52%.
This mass-migration has been chaotic. Some have clearly settled in the urban environment. Others, most notably the migrant workers, are caught between urban life and life in the countryside as they make their holiday commutes from one to the other. New towns have sprung up but, ill-positioned, remain all but deserted, a haunt for tourists and curiosity-seekers.
Ask young Chinese in the city where they spend their holidays and it's very likely they'll tell you of small villages where their grandparents continue to live on the ancestral farms.
It's unsurprising, then, that in a fast-growing city like Guilin where half or more of the people you pass on the street were born on a farm, the boundaries between city and countryside seem to blur.
The Urban Farmer
Hiking from Yangdi to Xingping Town
In its higgledy-piggledy expansion, the outskirts of Guilin in particular feature 'brown-field' sites, scatterings of half-demolished — sometimes half-built — structures that have been abandoned. These are sites targeted by the Guilin urban farmer. A patch of ground need be neglected for only a short time before an urban resident spots it, clears it, adds soil from elsewhere if necessary, digs irrigation ditches and begins to plant.
Some of these makeshift allotments can become quite elaborate, miniature farms with small patches of ground acting as fields in which different produce is grown, perhaps even a makeshift hut erected to serve as a farmhouse into which our urban farmer may retreat in hot weather or when it rains.
Citified Chickens
It is not only fruit and vegetables that the urban farmers tend. In all but the most central parts of Guilin — and sometimes even there — you're likely to be awoken of a morning by the pastoral sound of a cock crowing. Some city-dwellers have sacrificed their balconies to ducks and chickens, make-and-do hen houses guaranteeing a supply of meat and eggs for the household, so many indeed that there's nearly always a chicken within earshot.
Sometimes they escape and wander off. It is not very unusual to see a chicken taking a stroll along a busy pavement past the shops as if setting about its own domestic errands.
Even those householders who don't go to such extremes tend still to prefer their food up-close and personal. Raised on farms as they have been, they're much more likely to buy a duck than duck, and it's far easier to find chickens clucking with their breast intact in the many farm produce markets scattered around the city than it is to find chicken breast clingfilm-wrapped in a supermarket.
Boundaries Blurred
Explore the streets around the city's peripheries and seek out your own urban farms. They're one of the aspects of China in the present day in all its rapid change that makes the nation so fascinating, and Guilin offers a wonderful opportunity to see the reality of blurring boundaries as the country hurls itself, chaotically, piece-by-piece into the modern world.
Small by Chinese standards, with an urban population of some 800,000, Guilin would be considered a substantial city in many a nation elsewhere. However, as with many cities in China, it was considerably smaller not many decades ago. The product of China's rapid urbanization, for many of Guilin's city dwellers the countryside isn't far behind — and some bring it with them.The Urbanization of ChinaguilinChina is urbanizing so rapidly and with such a huge population that the movement of people from the countryside to the cities has been called the greatest human migration in history. In just a dozen years, from 1990 to 2012, China's urban population doubled from some 26% of the nation as a whole to over 52%.This mass-migration has been chaotic. Some have clearly settled in the urban environment. Others, most notably the migrant workers, are caught between urban life and life in the countryside as they make their holiday commutes from one to the other. New towns have sprung up but, ill-positioned, remain all but deserted, a haunt for tourists and curiosity-seekers.Ask young Chinese in the city where they spend their holidays and it's very likely they'll tell you of small villages where their grandparents continue to live on the ancestral farms.It's unsurprising, then, that in a fast-growing city like Guilin where half or more of the people you pass on the street were born on a farm, the boundaries between city and countryside seem to blur.The Urban FarmerHiking from Yangdi to Xingping TownIn its higgledy-piggledy expansion, the outskirts of Guilin in particular feature 'brown-field' sites, scatterings of half-demolished — sometimes half-built — structures that have been abandoned. These are sites targeted by the Guilin urban farmer. A patch of ground need be neglected for only a short time before an urban resident spots it, clears it, adds soil from elsewhere if necessary, digs irrigation ditches and begins to plant. Some of these makeshift allotments can become quite elaborate, miniature farms with small patches of ground acting as fields in which different produce is grown, perhaps even a makeshift hut erected to serve as a farmhouse into which our urban farmer may retreat in hot weather or when it rains. Citified ChickensIt is not only fruit and vegetables that the urban farmers tend. In all but the most central parts of Guilin — and sometimes even there — you're likely to be awoken of a morning by the pastoral sound of a cock crowing. Some city-dwellers have sacrificed their balconies to ducks and chickens, make-and-do hen houses guaranteeing a supply of meat and eggs for the household, so many indeed that there's nearly always a chicken within earshot.Sometimes they escape and wander off. It is not very unusual to see a chicken taking a stroll along a busy pavement past the shops as if setting about its own domestic errands.Even those householders who don't go to such extremes tend still to prefer their food up-close and personal. Raised on farms as they have been, they're much more likely to buy a duck than duck, and it's far easier to find chickens clucking with their breast intact in the many farm produce markets scattered around the city than it is to find chicken breast clingfilm-wrapped in a supermarket.Boundaries BlurredExplore the streets around the city's peripheries and seek out your own urban farms. They're one of the aspects of China in the present day in all its rapid change that makes the nation so fascinating, and Guilin offers a wonderful opportunity to see the reality of blurring boundaries as the country hurls itself, chaotically, piece-by-piece into the modern world.
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