To understand just how poor rural Guizhou is, you can look at the statistics. Or you can look at the children in Qixin village. Zhao Ai is nine, but is so short he appears three years younger. He eats nothing between leaving home at 6.30am – for a two-hour trek down the mountain to Ruiyuan primary school – and returning at 5pm. Last year, Shanghai took the top spot in the Organisation for Economic
![China's rural poor left stranded as urbanites race ahead](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/e3c3c1e55c0e0a246b8bcada77e7996fc07728be/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fi.guim.co.uk%2Fimg%2Fstatic%2Fsys-images%2FGuardian%2FPix%2Fpictures%2F2011%2F10%2F3%2F1317657039780%2FZhao-Ai-and-family-007.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1200%26height%3D630%26quality%3D85%26auto%3Dformat%26fit%3Dcrop%26overlay-align%3Dbottom%252Cleft%26overlay-width%3D100p%26overlay-base64%3DL2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctYWdlLTIwMTEucG5n%26enable%3Dupscale%26s%3D1fc4d5e87edaac73350a065947a32aa5)