The view by the dim lights of Guangze

The 160,000 residents of Guangze county in the mountainous northern region of Fujian Province seem content, though their lives are simple and they have access to fewer forms of recreation than people in more developed areas.

Guangze's prosperity falls short of even the more inland parts of Fujian. The county's hopes lie almost entirely on Sunner Group, which claims to supply chicken to all of the KFCs along the southern reaches of the Yangtze River.

The corporation is based on the outskirts of Guangze and recently built a hotel - where I stayed - at the far corner of the county's only road.