Contents
Foreword ________________________________________________ VIII
Acknowledgements ________________________________________XII
Preface ___________________________________________________ XIV
PART 1 THE EARTH WON’T STAND STILL
Birthdays at a mass grave __________________________________ 003
New lives and a new zest for living __________________________ 007
Healing in time ___________________________________________ 016
Time heals most wounds ___________________________________ 020
The power of persistence ___________________________________ 027
New homes and hopes amid tombstones _____________________ 035
‘Hero Pig’ saves the day ____________________________________ 039
The rebirth of hope ________________________________________ 044
Ghostly ruins _____________________________________________ 049
Drying tears ______________________________________________ 053
Trapped in time’s shadow __________________________________ 061
‘Quake tourism’ saves survivors ____________________________ 064
Dealing with disability _____________________________________ 069
Solving survivors’ intimate problems ________________________ 075
Rehabilitation advances recovery ____________________________ 078A fairy godmother story comes true _________________________ 084
A monk who saved lives and gave life _______________________ 088
Returning to Earth after 125 hours in hell _____________________ 090
A rogue excavator’s epicenter restaurant _____________________ 093
A ‘farm home happy’ brings joy _____________________________ 097
‘More beautiful than ever’ __________________________________ 100
13 towns’ lucky number comes up ___________________________ 106
A black-and-white issue of survival __________________________ 110
Legion’s squeals are hell’s warning bells _____________________ 115
Building resistance from the ground up ______________________ 118
Sichuan stays strong _______________________________________ 121
PART 2 CLOSER TO HEAVEN
The knife, the night and the light ____________________________ 132
Illuminating the future _____________________________________ 140
A blurred moment of clarity ________________________________ 154
Far-flung but not far-fetched ________________________________ 163
Sharing an impossible smile ________________________________ 166
Facing the world without a mask ____________________________ 175
Smiling with the world ____________________________________ 184
Camping with herders _____________________________________ 193
Living like a nomad _______________________________________ 201
A good man from the badlands _____________________________ 210
Yak heads, mushrooms and bananas _________________________ 220
Beyond the big melt _______________________________________ 226
An oasis’ lessons flow beyond the desert _____________________ 231The road to prosperity _____________________________________ 237
Road warriors’ journey to the west __________________________ 248
PART 3 FROM POVERTY TO PROSPERITY
A legend comes true _______________________________________ 260
A virtual world in a real village _____________________________ 265
Escaping ‘old machete’ _____________________________________ 268
The last road in China _____________________________________ 276
Solar-powered prosperity __________________________________ 283
Livestreaming farmers cultivate prosperity ___________________ 290
Love in a leprosy village ___________________________________ 299
Emus and nomads prowl Inner Mongolia ____________________ 306
Restoring fertility for men and deserts _______________________ 311
Serious potty talk _________________________________________ 315
Expect the unexpected in Tibet ______________________________ 317
PART 4 THE YANGTZE DIARIES
A secret pact, Fool’s Seeds and a golden bull __________________ 325
Building an engine of growth _______________________________ 330
Taihu’s pearl shines anew __________________________________ 333
A shopping paradise comes true ____________________________ 339
Gut drones, livestreams and T. Rex __________________________ 343
Overcoming peak obstacles _________________________________ 349
Kiwifruit, firewater and big data ____________________________ 354
Postscript ________________________________________________ 362
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