On a map of China, find the country’s capital, Beijing. Locate the Middle Hills region, northwest of Beijing, where the village of Xiaowanghu lies.

Find the province of Yunnan in the southwest of the country, where the village of Da Meizi lies. Find the provincial capital, Kunming, and the major trading city of Guangzhou.

Make notes about each area, jotting down what you can discover about agriculture, population, industry, landscape, and so on, from the information on the map. Use other reference materials such as gazetteers, encyclopaedias, travel guides and websites, to add to your notes.

Working in groups of four, use the information you have discovered about the two villages of Xiaowanghu and Da Meizi to discuss the different opportunities and threats facing each community. Note similarities and differences in:

• climate (rainfall, temperature, hours of sunshine...)
• topography (main landscape features, rivers, mountains, height above sea level...)
• housing (styles, building materials, occupancy levels...)
• crops grown (and why)
• culture (ethnic groups, customs, religious practices, role of women)
• land ownership (who controls the land and why, how patterns of ownership have changed)
• prosperity (what people take for granted, what people have and what they need)

Which of the two communities would you prefer to live in? Give your reasons.

Based on what you have seen and learned, discuss the roles played in each place by people of either sex, and by people of different ages. Are these roles different in your own society? How? Why? Who decides?

The following statements illustrate some of the benefits and costs of increasing liberalisation under the Household Responsibility system. You may be able to think of others after you have watched the programme. In groups, discuss the statements, and try to decide which are positive developments and which are negative, and for whom. Compare your conclusions with those other groups.

• greater individual freedom to decide how the land is managed
• higher prices for farm produce
• less security
• increased markets for produce
• machinery individually owned rather than shared
• responsibility for the success of one’s work
• responsibility for the failure of one’s work

Use the Introduction section of these Net Notes to find out more about how agricultural policies have changed in China over the last fifty years. Remembering that China must produce enough food to feed its people (one-fifth of the world’s population), which of the approaches seem best to you? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Use the ‘development compass rose’ (see the Introduction section of these Net Notes) to organise your knowledge. Are your answers to the questions on the diagram any different after watching the programme? Why?