Notes on Poverty

As in the U.S., there is a wide range of wealth in China, from rich to middle class to poor. As a general rule, the city centers were the wealthiest. One saw more poverty as one moved into the city outskirts and country. The photo below is from the outskirts of Jinan, and shows less prosperous establishments than downtown:

The following photo shows farm labor housing:

We saw mostly cities, but 60% of the population in China lives in rural areas (as compared to 20% in the US). Judging by what we did see of the country, there is considerable poverty outside of the cities. Even in the cities, I do not think you would consider the average standard of living to be high. We did not, however, notice any homeless people such as one sees in U.S. cities.

China has made considerable progress against poverty. Before this trip I attended a lecture at UVM about China by Nicholas Kristof, and he said that China has lifted 300 million people above the UN poverty level since 1990.