Up to 40 million Chinese people still live in caves. That’s more than the populations of Texas and Illinois combined. In fairness, a fraction of these caves are apparently pretty nice, complete with electricity and well-compacted dirt floors. But that’s grading on a curve because, well, they’re still caves.
That's so incredible, I had to check it. Is the figure grossly exaggerated, representing Henan (not Hunan, as the narrator repeatedly says in defiance of the map of Henan shown in the film--although I confess maybe they really are pronounced the same despite being transliterated differently in English) province's population? No, it is close to 100 million according to Wikipedia. They are common, however, regardless of the number. And even though you can say they are "ecologically sound," they are still caves even with a beautiful facade. To be fair, the film page says 40 million live in caves even though in the film it says the province's population is 40 million. Is the entire population really living in caves? That kind of cave supply seems unlikely. Yet this site says:
Some 35 million Chinese still live in caves and over a 100 million people reside in houses with one or more walls built in a hillside. Many of the cave and hill dwellings are in the Shanxi, Henan and Gansu provinces.
And this book says 40 million cave dwellers in all China.
So despite my skepticism, at this point I think it is fair to say 40 million is as good a figure as any until I read otherwise.
Sing it, Jonah! I'm really getting tired of China fan boys swooning over China's so-called race to bury us with reasonably enlightened green policies forced on people too narrowly focused (on getting out of their freaking caves?) to think of the globe.
China is a regional threat developing. But I would not change places with China for all their foreign exchange reserves. I've been saying that for years and I don't care how many experts say otherwise. Cope with the problems that exist, by all means. But becoming more like them is the only way we can lose to them.
My God, people! Lots of Chinese are living in freaking caves! And even if you can't trust the number Jonah presents (or any number), you can trust that "modern" China has a billion dirt-poor peasants in addition to those new cities and airports that pundits like to point out.
