Quenching the thirst of China’s Yao minority

Lingzhan village is 740km from Hong Kong or, if you prefer, an exhausting 16-hour train ride followed by a five-hour bus trip away. On a crossroads in Lingyun county, in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Lingzhan is a settlement of two streets containing a few fly-infested restaurants, a smattering of shops, a hotel and a middle school. It’s the definitive market town, where rural folk congregate to do a little business or wait for a bus.

The marketplace is the hub of Lingzhan, and it is here that Yang Keshu is having breakfast. Stout with a kind, unpretentious smile, Yang is Han Chinese but distinctly southern in appearance: brownskinned and easy-mannered. As he tucks into rice noodles, the market bustles around him, and colourfully clad women sell their wares.

“In Lingzhan, Han Chinese are a minority,” Yang says. “Most of these women are Zhuang. The Yao villagers aren’t here yet as it takes longer to get down from the mountains.” Yang runs a grass-roots initiative, Yaozhai Xiwang, that helps ethnic Yao villagers build water cisterns, large round tanks that collect and store rain water. He and I have met before, after I completed Ride for Hope, a sponsored cycle from Shenzhen to Shanghai organised by Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts to support his charity.

I have come to find out why there is a need for Yaozhai Xiwang.

After all, how could anyone in the subtropical south find themselves short of water? The lush vegetation around Lingzhan indicates a wellrained- upon region. Furthermore, in boom-time China – a nation that hosted the world’s most expensive Olympics and has its own space programme – why isn’t there enough cash to build a few simple cisterns?

After breakfast, Yang takes me to his apartment, in the staff block of Lingyun Middle School, where he teaches mathematics.

“Sorry about the mess,” he says. “We just moved in.”