Farmer Liu Dongqing smokes a cigarette in a two-room mud house in Yongfu, on February 27, 2006. Liu said he must pay 2,700 yuan for the right to farm his land this year, a third of the 7,000 yuan to 8,000 yuan he expects to make. That will leave Liu and his wife the equivalent of less than $1 a day each to live on. The increase in fees has forced the couple to cut down to two meals a day, Liu said.
It was -25 C in Heilongjian province when I went there with a journalist in February 2006 to meet poor Chinese farmers. Heilongjiang is one of China's poorest provinces, with an average income per capita of 7,141 yuan in 2004. China has 200 million people living below the $1/day poverty threshold, according to World Bank 2004 estimates.
