XINRAN: It's not just here, you find Zhejiang people doing business all over the world. They have a real eye for making money, very quick brains.
Zhejiang is in south-east China, a coastal province with a history of migration going back to the twelfth century. New Zhejiang migrant workers can be found almost everywhere on earth since China opened up in the 1980s.
LI: I don't get it, we're all people, we're all part of the same national system, how come
XINRAN: In Lanzhou city, do you see more rich people or poor people? Is there any help for poor people?
Before my journey, I had heard state officials announce that China's central government had failed to restructure social systems including health care, education and pensions since the 1980s. On the one hand I am happy to know the leadership are learning how to be honest in the face of problems. On the other, I would like to know how people feel about this. Obviously, Mr Li hadn't heard about it.
LI: I can't say for sure. A fair few people are living on the government's social security money, 202 yuan a month.
XINRAN: About what proportion of Lanzhou people are drawing that basic living allowance? Twenty per cent? Ten per cent? Five per cent?
LI: It's not a big percentage, I don't know the figures.
XINRAN: So how do all those rich people get their money?
LI: Property, running work gangs on building sites, investment, private businesses, that sort of thing.
XINRAN: What sort of incomes do Lanzhou government civil servants get?
LI: Civil servants' incomes are very high.
XINRAN: Over a thousand a month? Over two thousand?
LI: Over a thousand isn't that much; at least two or three thousand, I should think. I haven't had anything to do with civil servants. They're not paid according to results like us, where you get a percentage of the profits if you do a good job; if we were to sit there just waiting for customers to come to us, we wouldn't make much. Drivers like me are doing pretty well if we get 1,100 or 1,200 in the high season.
XINRAN: The winter is the slack season, so how much can you get then?
LI: In the slack season I just go home and sleep, and I do casual work; at most I get 800 yuan.
XINRAN: So do you have any minimum-wage security?
LI: No, I have to go out and find other work – they give you 800 yuan a month, how long can you feed a family of three on that? They calculate that the minimum average income should be 170 or a bit more per person, this 800 yuan will feed your family for a bit over a month. When you haven't got a job, they do calculations about you, put in requests, examine and approve them. What with all those endless forms to fill in, all that running around and getting yourself obligated, it's so much hard work you'd be better off looking for a job!
XINRAN: The government has a specialised service for that, don't they?
LI: Well, they do, but the leaders in some of the backward districts… let's just say that if you've got connections they'll sort it out for you, but without connections you'll have to wait a few more months. And if you're drawing the basic living allowance, you have to do what they tell you, and do labour for them once a week. If you don't do the labour service then you don't get anything, it shows that you have work to do, and they strike you off the list.
XINRAN: What labour do the people collecting the basic living allowance do?
LI: They have to sweep the streets, or spend a day patrolling the area.
XINRAN: How much is the average income for a peasant in Gansu province?
LI: Peasants who don't live too far from the city have a pretty good income, they all grow vegetables, the government's bought up all the land close to Lanzhou, so they've all had money from that, and houses and living expenses too, so they just do a bit of business on the side to stop themselves getting bored.
XINRAN: So how about peasants who live further out?
LI: Life's very hard. Places with water are a little bit better, you can plant a few food crops, a few vegetables, some melons and other fruits, enough to feed the whole family.
XINRAN: And what about the places without any water?
LI: Without water? That'd be like our Dingxi, where the government's doing all that poverty alleviation work. Have you heard of the Two Xis? One is Dingxi, one is Longxi – it's so poor in those places, your heart aches to hear about it. A family of seven with just one pair of trousers between them – whoever goes outside wears them.
XINRAN: Even now?
LI: Yes, now! They really are that poor, because there's no water in the mountain areas, and every year they can't even get back the seed they've sown. In the past you weren't allowed to leave to find work, that was even more cruel! Now it's a bit better, as the ones who can do hard labour – and dare to climb over the mountains, cross the rivers and trek long distances – can do casual work away from home, to give the family a bit of support. What with that and emergency rations from the government, a lot less of them starve to death than before.
XINRAN: And what about the ones who can't go out to do labour?
LI: The women, old people, little kids… well, they just have to stay at home and put up with it.
XINRAN: So from what you know, how does the state help them?
LI: Every year there are emergency grain rations and work-for-food schemes. The government pays your board and lodging, exchanging the work you do for food for your family. And the last resort is migration, moving them to places where there's water.
XINRAN: Are they willing to go?
LI: The younger ones must be – in those places you can't even keep body and soul together. The older ones always think that it's better to die in their own homes, die in the place they know. The poorer a place is the more ignorant and foolish the people are, they just don't believe the world outside exists!
After we got out of the car, and I paid Driver Li his 'tuition fees', he said, 'You didn't have to be so polite! You've seen the world, how could you still not know about Lanzhou?' You hear things like this very often in China: 'He's a provincial-level leader, and yet he can't read a blueprint?' 'You can't even look after your keys, how can you be in charge of all those people?' A very typical piece of Chinese folk logic.
4 Pioneers of China's Oil: a Distinguished Husband and Wife
Mrs You, left , and Mr You, right , poring over an oil exploration map with a Russian expert, north- west China, 1950.
