The ever changing capital of China, Beijing, seemed like a furnace during a June visit, but that is where the 'plane landed so it was a case of making the best of things. "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun!" but thousands of other ethnic people were doing the same thing, and not appearing to be concerned about it. In Wangfujing Street, where a visit was made to the Foreign Language Bookshop, a Rickshaw Man was rushing away to pick up his next passenger, without showing a single sign of perspiration. Perhaps he was trying to get away from the "Barber" and the "Erhu Player" who were also on display in this very famous shopping street of Beijing.

But still, the object of the visit was not to go sight-seeing in Beijing, but to visit Chinese farmers in Gansu Province. Looking through the window of the Beijing International Hotel, it was difficult to imagine the conditions in Gansu province, where mountains and deserts dominated the scenery. The train station was close to the hotel, very convenient on the day of departure. Provisions for the journey had already been bought, including drinks, bread and biscuits, fruit, and tubs of instant noodles, so we were well prepared for the twenty-eight hour train journey from Beijing to Zhangye.

The journey did in fact take 29 hours, but that was an extra hour to marvel at the scenery, so there were no complaints. Mongolian Round Houses, dust storms, deep gullies in the yellow earth, eroded by rainwater rushing from mountain storms; a fleeting glimpse of Chinese fishermen on the banks of the Yellow River, images only the mind could capture. In the village of Nainhua, about a ninety minute car journey from Zhangye, many of the houses were built of mud-brick with yellow-daub.

The Yellow Earth had its uses but looking at the barren scenery it seemed impossible for anyone to make a living here. Billions and billions and billions of dollars are spent in trying to establish if there is, or ever was, water on the planet Mars, yet where is the will or incentive to change to green the colour of the worlds deserts? The farmers in the village of Nainhua used fresh well water to grow their crops of corn, wheat, beans, tomatoes and cotton, and to nourish trees to break the destructive power of the winds.

At intervals along the unmade road, fronting the mud-brick homes of the Chinese farmers, were outlets for the well water, government installed, controlled by a simple screw valve. Behind the houses were plots of land turned green with the lush growth of their crops, a seemingly miraculous transformation of the arid land. On one evening fresh beans were picked from the crops and cooked for dinner. The lifestyle of the families of the Chinese farmers may not have been as affluent as the Chinese families in the China cities, but they were generous with their hospitality; the community spirit was evident and one was made to feel at home.