Dong woman in Congjiang, Guizhou 1993

Here is a Dong woman in Congjiang, Guizhou in southern China in 1993. She is demonstrating a great way to carry your shopping home if you haven't got a car. The Dong lifestyle was very efficient in terms of use of resources with very little wastage. Their villages were neat and tidy with no sign of rubbish tips of discarded electrical goods. They appeared to be fit and healthy and to have enough to eat. Somebody once described China's ethnic minorities as "pure" and I think that is a good word to describe the Dong. The book about them that I have is called "The Dong - A hidden civilization" and now I can understand what it means. I wish we could all live more like them.