Big houses a hedge against the future

Homes in the rural areas of Fuyang, Anhui province, can be deceptive.

About six months ago, I accompanied a foreign editor from China Daily's headquarters there to interview some children left behind when their parents migrated to cities for work. The editor wanted to see how such children, generally from poverty-stricken areas, had been doing.

On first sight, she didn't believe the places I brought her to had anything to do with poverty. Even after we drove for nearly two hours from the urban area, she still thought we were in the suburbs.