Home of Chinese Farmer in Huang Jinao With Rice Spread Out to Dry on Farmyard

The wooden walls of the farmhouse living room were decorated with posters and hand written Chinese characters on red paper associated with the traditional customs of the Chinese New Year. On one wall of the farmhouse there was inevitably a portrait of Chairman Mao. Between the ceiling beams were swallow's nests, and their return to the nests in the Spring was considered to be a very good omen for the year.

All the concreted farmyards had rice drying out in the hot sun, which was neatly raked into a pattern of low ridges, to expose the grain. There were also piles of chaff, ricks of rice straw and loose blades, nothing was wasted from the harvest. At the point where I stood to take this photograph, a large very fat pig loudly grunted in its sty behind me, as if relishing the thought of future meals from the harvest at the farm. Fat pigs are more valuable than the lean meat sought by Westerners, as the fat is rendered down for cooking, and perhaps that is why Chinese food always tastes delicious !