One man's perspective

When we get to the monastery we are met by Patrick, who is a local man and who works as a guide. During our time at the monastery he talks openly about life in China. Here is his perspective of some aspects of his life in China:

 Patrick

He used to be a local farmer and his family farmed the land for 300 years. 4 years ago his land was taken from him by the Chinese government and sold for development. He had no choice about this and the army came to clear the people from the land. He was given some compensation and a poor-quality place to live. I asked him if he was angry about this and he replied, 'In China we don't have to be happy'.

He now makes a living within the monastery, providing services to the tourists who stay there. He can be a guide for visiting the mountain and while we are there he takes away and gets our laundry done and brings us breakfasts of fried egg sandwiches, fruit and tea.

He is married with two children aged 7 and 9. It is not generally allowed by the government for a woman to have more than 1 child. When a woman is pregnant with her first child she gets an official paper to show that she is entitled to this birth. If she becomes pregnant a second time she will not qualify for this certificate and will have to have an abortion. When his wife was pregnant the second time she went away from home to hide. In each community there will be a woman who looks out for pregnancies and unofficial pregnancies will be reported and the woman made to have an abortion.  She had to move around every 20 days or so to avoid being reported. Once she had the second child Patrick was liable for a fine. The fine is a different amount for different people. Someone living in a city would pay about twice what someone in the country would have to pay. Patrick's fine was 46 000 Yuan (about £4 600). If unpaid, the fine goes up. It took Patrick 2 years to pay off the fine, paying 48 000 Yuan in total. The 1 baby restriction does not apply to some ethnic minority groups within China.

Everybody has an official identification card, which is needed to qualify for schooling, jobs etc.

It is a very big problem for poor men to find a wife. Rich men take their pick of a wife and then take other beautiful women and set them up in individual homes and have a child with each woman.

Patrick's wife plays maj-jong for money in tea houses, all day and all night. The women talk with each other and compare their husbands and this makes the women dissatisfied. When people were poorer they worked hard together and were happier.

Patrick learned his English from a neighbour who used to be a translator in the Mao regime. As a boy Patrick would go to him for free lessons in the evenings. This man is now 98 years old and dying in hospital and Patrick visits him every day.