China’s Last Cave Dwellers | Hacker News Reader

China’s Last Cave Dwellers

nytimes.com

48 pointsspking7 comments

More interesting than cave dwellers and nearby to them are cliff burials. This is an ancient prehistoric practice and AFAIK there is only one remaining practicing group, the Ku, in all of continental Eurasia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_coffins

Last? A few years ago it was reported that there are 30 million people living in caves in China and more cavemen on Earth now than at any point in history.

The source of the 30 million number is a Los Angeles Times reporter.[0] But she's talking about yadong[1], which are individual homes carved from cliffs or also build into trenches.

This New York Times article is specific to a naturally-occurring cave big enough to fit an entire village of wooden houses and then some.

I'm not saying you're wrong. Just trying to explain the discrepancy.

[0] http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/18/world/la-fg-china-ca...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaodong

> And there they have remained, even after China was united under Communist rule, grinding out an existence of profound rural poverty and isolation.

I would say especially after that, knowing how that played out. I'd prefer rural poverty and isolation from the CPC over universal poverty and pragmatic social isolation from my neighbours and my own children (!) any day, I don't know about you.

> Mr. Wang said that during those years, violators of the policy would sometimes be taken away for forced abortions and sterilization.

Reason enough to choose isolation.

Different with western countries, rural area in general cannot provide you things you need for daily life in China. Besides the life is quite boring without many entertainment. That is why many young people left village to cities.

I'm not sure you have a fair understanding of what isolationist rural poverty is like, or what 'universal poverty' under the CPC looks like. Are you referring to a particular time period? The cultural revolution was pretty bad, but you'd be hard-pressed to make this claim for the decades that followed.

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