Later we visited a local village perched on a hill but were asked not to take photographs as (a) it was so poor that the villagers were embarrassed, and (b) it isn't actually as poor as some people think and they didn't want donations (like the surrounding fields) to "dry up"! A great example of Chinese "doublethink"! However, it's no laughing matter to be dependent on crops that fail when the rains don't come.