A former farmer entertains his dog in a “replacement housing block” on the outskirts of Beijing, built for people like him who has lost their farmland to a new phase of state-driven urbanisation.
Behaviors are changing fast. In a new area south of Beijing, I met a group of chain-smoking former farmers in their 50s sitting around a communal picnic table admiring a well-groomed dog. Its canine cousins living in farms are usually less lucky, chained to the front door as a guard dogs or served in a hot pot.
For generations, Chinese farmers picked vegetables on family plots in China, a mainly agrarian society right up until the 20th century.
Faced with slowing exports, Communist leaders are pushing ahead with a historic plan to move 100 million rural residents into towns and cities by 2020 to create a new middle class and boost demand.