Post by L Roebuck on Feb 14, 2007 8:56:13 GMT -5
China's "last cave dwellers" refuse to leave
An ethnic Miao man carrying buckets walks out of a huge cave at a remote Miao village in Ziyun county, southwest China's Guizhou province February 11, 2007. The village of Zhongdong, which literally means "middle cave", is build in a huge, aircraft hanger-sized natural cave, carved out of a mountain over thousands of years by wind, water and seismic shifts. Picture taken on February 11, 2007.
For Wang Fengguan, a man's cave is his castle.
He lives in a huge one -- and he has no intention of leaving. Neither do any of the other 20 families in his village.
"Where else would we go?" said Wang, sitting in his house, built in the cave where his family has lived for more than half a century, deep in the poor, remote southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou.
"This is our home. We are used to it," he added, in uncertain sounding Mandarin.
Wang's village of Zhongdong -- which literally means "middle cave" -- is built in a huge, aircraft hanger-sized natural cave, carved inside a mountain over thousands of years by wind, water and seismic shifts.
In other parts of China people live in houses tunnelled out of hillsides, but Zhongdong is, the local government believes, the last place in the country where people live year-round in a naturally occurring cave.
Full Article
An ethnic Miao man carrying buckets walks out of a huge cave at a remote Miao village in Ziyun county, southwest China's Guizhou province February 11, 2007. The village of Zhongdong, which literally means "middle cave", is build in a huge, aircraft hanger-sized natural cave, carved out of a mountain over thousands of years by wind, water and seismic shifts. Picture taken on February 11, 2007.
For Wang Fengguan, a man's cave is his castle.
He lives in a huge one -- and he has no intention of leaving. Neither do any of the other 20 families in his village.
"Where else would we go?" said Wang, sitting in his house, built in the cave where his family has lived for more than half a century, deep in the poor, remote southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou.
"This is our home. We are used to it," he added, in uncertain sounding Mandarin.
Wang's village of Zhongdong -- which literally means "middle cave" -- is built in a huge, aircraft hanger-sized natural cave, carved inside a mountain over thousands of years by wind, water and seismic shifts.
In other parts of China people live in houses tunnelled out of hillsides, but Zhongdong is, the local government believes, the last place in the country where people live year-round in a naturally occurring cave.
Full Article
