I am an American photojournalist and travel correspondent based in Beijing and have traveled extensively to all 33 provinces in China. I specialize in budget travel and have a personal affection for remote villages, ethnic minority culture and uncharted locales. I am also the author of CHINA: Portrait of a People, the most comprehensive collection of imagery of contemporary China ever published by a single author.
Experience
Experience: In 2006, photojournalist Tom Carter embarked on a historic, 2-year journey that would take him throughout the 33 provinces of China, making him one of the first foreigners in China’s 5,000 year history to do so. From the Yellow Sea to the Himalayas, Tom traversed 56,000 kilometers and visited well over 200 cities and villages in a determination to understand, and thoroughly record, life and humanity in today’s People’s Republic of China.
Question So are they still villages without phones or electricity? Or do they have some of modern day technology?
Answer Hi Evan,
Like most undeveloped nations, China has yet to progress at the pace of the West. More specifically, China is presently focusing on developing its largest cities before they turn to the lesser provinces.
This growing regional disparity is causing severe social and economic differences, and the contrast is immediately evident upon arrival. East and South China boast international metropolises such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong while North and West China remain a rural frontier of antediluvian villages and virgin landscape.
To answer your question directly, during my personal experiences traveling across China, I have visited a great number of villages without electricity, phone lines, running water or paved roads. Many such villages are concentrated in regions of Tibet, Yunnan, Gansu and Guangxi.
Visiting these locals is a veritable trip back in time, and while the poverty is heartbreaking, the customs and lifestyle of its people is truly an unforgettable quality that I will remember all my life.
