NGOs Valuable in Developing World
The days are still quite hot here in Shanghai (even thought the temperature have been down quite a bit…walking around yesterday in Chongming Island, I didn't sweat nearly as much as I expected). Now, speaking of the walk yesterday, I trekked about 5 hours into the rural parts of the island, away from any public buses or major roads (I was actually lost…didn't know the geographic scale of things…expected the island to be much smaller), and found out that the difference between the parts near the major roads and the true countryside is quite glaring. While high rise apartments are built near major roads to accommodate increased number of mainland Shanghainese who move to the Island to get away from the city, the same amount of luxury is not shown at all in the villages. Sure, the houses are much nicer than the ones in really poor parts of China, but in terms of the simple interior décor (no AC, wooden chairs, traditional kitchens, few electronics), it can be said that the rapid