Growing vegetables in China is part of the lifestyle of any Chinese family that has a plot of land available near their home, or at the roadside, or on a mountain slope, or on a river bank. If there is a spare plot of land anywhere that is reasonably flat, and capable of being cultivated, then it will most likely be used for growing vegetables. Chinese farmers grow vegetables, and the boat people of Nanning grow vegetables. Growing vegetables by Chinese farmers in Gansu Province where the land is mostly desert and mountains, is certainly a challenge. Their method of growing vegetables in raised beds covered with polythene reduces the evaporation of the fresh well water, with which they irrigate their crops. The raised beds enable the farmers to divert the well water between the beds and thus change the color of the yellow earth to green. Sweetcorn, broadbeans, sunflowers and tomatoes are amongst the crops growing in the fields.