Gallery: Portraits of China
Photographers Mathias Braschler and Monika Fischer spent six months on an epic 20,000-mile journey through China to capture winners and losers in the country's astonishing economic changes - and also those whose lives have been quite untouched. From struggling peasants, factory workers to soldiers, night-club DJs, artists and newly-rich urbanites, this is how China looks as it readies itself for the Olympic Games.
Chu Weiwei,
Soldier,Beijing:
Chu is a lieutenant colonel in the People's Liberation Army. She works at Foreign Affairs Office and is pround of her calling.
Beijing:
Fu Yuan,
Guard at the Olympic stadium,Beijing:
Like most of those working at the stadium site during its construction, Fu is a migrant worker. He makes 800 yuan (US$114) a month, working six days a week, and supports his family back home in Shanxi.
Beijing:
Ai Weiwei,
Artist,Beijing:
Ai is a conceptual - and often controversial - artist who was part of the design team for the Olympic stadium, a stunning vision of swooping abd cruss-crossed steel gurders supporting a conventional arena, known as the Bird's Nest. Ai has called it China's pretend smile.
Beijing:
Xia Jang,
Entrepreneur,Beijing:
Xia's aim to popularise polo in China, and use the sport to promote a gentleman's culture and develop business. So far his club has 30 members, but horses are his passion and the stables of his polo ponies are built into his mansion house.
Beijing:
Lu Shanshan,
DJ,Beijing:
DJ Samanda, as Lu is known, provides the music at a new club, Arena. 'I wake around noon, read about the latest music, download some tunes, head off to work around 10pm and get off after 2am. Some western music - considered spiritually polluting - is outlawed.'
Taishan,
Shandong Province:
Yuan Qingyuan,
Monk,Taishan,
Shandong Province:
Taishan is the holiest mountain for Taoists. Many Chinese climb the 6,000 steps to the summit once in their life - for luck. Yuan lives there all year long as a monk in the Taoist monastery. He takes the cable car if he needs to visit the outside world.
Boshan,
Shandong Province:
Wang Wei,
Communist Party Secretary,Boshan,
Shandong Province:
The porcelain factory where Wang was a director is mostly rubble now, abandoned by the government six years ago when workers, including Wang, were laid off. He feels betrayed by the party leaders. Now he survives on a US$140-a-month pension.
Qingdao,
Shandong Province:
Li Li,
Brewery worker,Qingdao,
Shandong Province:
The Tsingtao brewery, where Li works was set up by German settlers in Qingdao before the first world war. The heavy-lager style brew made here is China's now best known beer and has established fair export trade, notably to the US.
Penglai,
Shandong province:
Ma Jing and Li Haifeng,
Leisure tycoons,Penglai,
Shandong province:
Ma is the daughter of a People's Liberation Army general, Li the son of a farmer. Her parents vehemently opposed their marriage, but they went ahead anyway and have built up a resort business that has made them multi-millionaires.
Wudixian,
Shandong province:
Guo Shuchi,
Fisherman's wife,Wudixian,
Shandong province:
It's a tough life making a living fishing in the Yellow River delta. Guo helps her husband keep their boat in good repair - something they can only do when the tide's out. Braschler and Fisher had to wade through knee-high mud to reach them.
Beidaihe,
Hebei province:
Helene Zhao Linxi,
Bank employee,Beidaihe,
Hebei province:
Source: Guardian UK
Relevant story: Faces in a billion
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