00.00 — 00.42

Images of the Great Wall of China, and then the village of Xiaowanghu, 20 miles north of the Great Wall.

00.42 — 01.30

A family in Xiaowanghu get up and prepare breakfast. Little Cui is asleep on the kang (platform over the stove). In winter the whole family sleep on the kang. The mother warms water on the stove. The climate is harsh and unforgiving; there is virtually no rain. The father stokes a coal-fired boiler.

01.30 — 02.27

A family in Da Meizi, 2000 km southwest, is getting up. They sleep under a mosquito net: the warm climate encourages insects. They wash outdoors even in winter. They set off by bicycle to work on paddy fields.

02.27 — 2.43

Map showing the two villages.

02.43 — 04.24

Xiaowanghu: breakfast time. The younger girl is mashing potatoes for the pigs. Her mother steams dumplings for the family. The girl feeds the pigs. The family eat breakfast on a kang — potatoes, spring onions, pickled carrots, buns and wheat noodles. Rice is not a staple. Little Cui, aged 11, sets off for school. Water is drawn from a well. The father carries water buckets into the house to fill the water storage barrel, then takes a mule cart to the fields to begin planting.

04.24 — 5.12

Irrigation ditches are dug. Because of water shortages, there are only two opportunities to do this each year. A pumping station pumps water up from 18 metres below the surface. Channel irrigation is used because flood irrigation is extravagant with water. Ploughing is done with a mule.

05.12 — 5.43

The older sister crawls into the pigsty to collect manure, which is mixed with the family’s own excrement, to be dried and spread on fields as fertiliser.

05.43 — 06.44

Maize seed (dyed pink) is planted: a high-yielding seed. Chemical fertiliser and pesticide are spread on the field. The soil is covered with polythene sheets to retain the moisture — because of this technology they are able to grow three times as much grain as before. Maize is a cash crop, sold for brewing beer.

06.44 — 07.30

Farmers are resistant to change, but this simple technology has now spread across China. Changes in land tenure — 3 mu per person, divided into strips — and a ‘Household Responsibility’ system have been introduced.

07.30 — 08.30

Archive film shows previous land tenure systems. Private land was confiscated after the revolution; landowners were tried, and many executed. There are problems with the commune system.

08.30 — 08.59

The mother explains the benefits of owning their own land.

08.59 — 09.19

The elder sister explains that houses are now made of brick instead of mud, and that they now have colour televisions and tractors.

09.19 — 09.59

The village now has four shops: private businesses, which were once illegal. In Da Meizi, the Miao family also seem to be better off under the Household Responsibility system.

09.59 — 10.30

Mrs Miao is a widow, who raised her family alone. She says she can now afford new clothes and better food. She prepares a meal of hot chillis, beans, tomatoes and tofu, with rice as the staple.

10.30 — 10.39

Breakfast.

10.39 — 12.12

Rice seedlings are grown in small beds while winter wheat and vegetables ripen in larger fields; they are transplanted to the larger fields as soon as the wheat and vegetables are harvested. Each person has half a mu of irrigated land: this is only one-sixth of the allocation in Xiaowanghu, but since the soil is much more fertile and water more abundant they are able to grow two or three crops per year. Fields are levelled to ensure an even water supply. Land is used intensively: rice is planted two days after harvesting onions.

12.12 — 13.07

Vegetables, an important cash crop, are harvested. There is a new road where traders can pick up crops to sell in large cities. Mrs Miao explains that villages across the mountains cannot find a market for their crops because they are too far from the road. Sacks of potatoes are loaded into a truck. Traders compete for produce, which means good prices for farmers.

13.07 — 13.25

The lorry sets off for a local market town, Iliang, 10 minutes’ drive away.

13.25 — 14.27

In Xiaowanghu, it is difficult to grrow vegetables, but new greenhouses make it possible. Six families have invested in greenhouses. These are covered with rush mats to retain heat. Vegetables can now be grown all year round. Vegetables are loaded onto a bike. Remoteness makes selling produce difficult: growers have to find own customers. Some produce is taken to a local restaurant (this kind of private enterprise was once forbidden).

14.27 — 15.09

The only way to make money is to leave the village and go to town. Jiangziahkou is a big city two hours’ drive away. Young people migrate here to find work: boys work in construction or mining, girls in catering. The older sister says that girls find life in the village boring, and want to go to towns.

15.09 — 16.00

In Da Meizi, young people can get work in the village, at a factory making cement irrigation pipes. The son has a job here. Profits from the factory fund facilities in the village. Work is also available in the nearby town. The son says that he finds work in the fields boring, and prefers the factory.

16.00 — 17.22

The profits fund a satellite dish (£2 annual subscription per family), a loudspeaker in the village, irrigation, electricity, village roads, and a new shower block. There are some private enterprises, such as a travelling butcher’s stall (it is now possible to buy meat every day) and a village tea house, where men come to play mah-jong.

17.22 — 18.24

Xiaowanghu is much poorer. The village school and doctor are funded from agricultural income alone; there are no factories to help. Villagers pay for their own medicine (which was free under collectivisation). There are no tea houses or recreational facilties in Xiaowanghu: television is the only entertainment.

18.24 — end

In Da Meizi, a karaoke evening at the village tea house provides an alternative to television.