Dining with a Dong family

While each city is linked to its counties by quality roads, it is not yet the same from county to county. Travelers must often return to the city to take another road. But Rome was not built in a day. Thus, ethnic communities living in the mountains are no longer isolated... or not quite.

The region's capital, Nanning, is becoming the commercial capital of the south, and its high-rise architecture resembles that of Shanghai and Beijing.

Telecommunications are convenient all over Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Most of the hotels offer Internet connection and the rooms are even equipped with a modern computer.

As always I paid attention to education. I visited Miao, Dong, and Yao places in the north of Guangxi. There are still too many children who are not able to attend school. I also found a lack of employment, even for educated people who often have to expatriate to Guangdong in search of work. Some parents leave their children behind while they go to earn a living as workers in other cities or provinces. What a contradiction that such misery exists though China's development, reform, and opening are advancing at an astonishing pace. This is sad, but, nevertheless, there are also wonderful facts, places, and people in Guangxi.