China lands on the moon today. ( Archived) (22)

The machine is a kind of thrashing machine for rice, used outside but kept indoors away from the rain, health and safety has not arrived in China yet, so the children are brought up to treat machinery with caution, but of course accidents happen. Once they have collected the rice, it is put outside on huge sheets of plastic to dry in the sun, the farmers get paid by the sackful, maybe less than a dollar a hundredweight.

The basket contains sweet potatoes, a common food for farmers as is of course rice, the children with have a mixture of sweet potato and rice, the parents mainly just rice (boiled), these homes have no heating so winter is not pleasant for them, hot rice warms them up. The family live in one room, no running water, there is a communal water tap outside, also communal toilet, By communal I mean shared with 4,5,maybe 7 families in the village. No shops and usually dirt roads.
Dogs are seen as toys for the children rather than pets, most children are looked after by their grandparents as the mum and dad usually work away from home, sometimes returning at the weekend, sometimes just during the Spring festival (Chinese new year)