Eyes on Chengdu
“Migrants Come to City, City Comes to Peasants”
In about a week, when you turn NPR's All Things Considered on, you'll have a direct connection to China. That's when Melissa Block and Robert Siegel begin to co-host the program from Chengdu. The two will tell stories about overlooked aspects of life in this vast nation.
All the research, all the planning that you've followed on this blog will come booming out of your radio speakers. It'll be available, of course, on NPR.org, too.
Block has already been here collecting stories, and returns later today.
Siegel arrived this week and immediately sought a direct connection to our focus on youth, inviting eight outspoken English-speaking students over for dinner and a long chat.
Dinner with a group of English-speaking students.
Photo by Art Silverman, NPR
They talked to us for hours about a variety of things. We asked what they want an American audience to know about their country. They told us what it's like to be raised in a society that largely consists of only children your own age.
And they shared their thoughts about economic growth versus and clean environment.
CITY PUSHES OUTWARD
While our focus is on young people, we had to pay attention to one huge fact of life in this city: expansion. Chengdu is spreading out fast. Roads that were originally built to surround the outskirts have found themselves part of the inner city. The "ring road" that once defined Chengdu outer limits is now the "First Ring Road."
Lei Lei and her Siemens Triple Zone refrigerator in her new apartment near the Third Ring Road.
Photo by Art Silverman, NPRFarmland at the edge of the Third Ring Road now sprouts tall apartments buildings. Construction, as pointed out here previously, is everywhere. People now talk of the need for a fourth, and even fifth, ring roads.
The impact of sudden growth here can be illustrated by three households we encountered. One consisted of a young couple expecting a baby in October. They plan to move into a new complex called "Vancouver Gardens" about five miles from the city center.
We also met rural people who migrated to Chengdu from their mountain village. They placed their hopes on better jobs in the city. But a series of mishaps has soured their ambitions.
Rural migrants workers who came to Chengdu with a dream of success, but have suffered setbacks.
Photo by Art Silverman, NPRFinally, the city itself has pushed itself into the lives of others who never intended to be part of its grasp. We'll tell you how Chengdu's hunger for more housing has angered a group of peasants who lived at the edge of the city and found their land taken for apartments.
--Art Silverman
12:00 AM ET | 05-11-2008 | permalink
