Regarding the journalism issue, I suppose it can be a vicious cycle - some editors have set ideas about what kind of stories they are looking for about China. Freelancers frustrated with trying to break the mould then find themeselves conforming to the the stereotypes to make a living. It’s not all bad though - I have come across a fair few editors who are open to different suggestions, even from unknown writers. As I said, I’ll be in a better position to comment after a year.

I have found what I consider to be some interesting travel article ideas difficult to sell to UK newspapers, only to read the next day a story about the strange feeling you get when sipping Starbucks in Communist China and Mao watching your every move on Tiananmen Square (the Times, I think). But then maybe I just haven’t found the right idea yet.

The water problem is China’s elephant in the room. You can breathe shitty air and the problem remains abstract until you get lung cancer or your children become asthmatics. (Pauses to contemplate pregnant wife…) But people get shitty in a hurry when they don’t have water to drink.

China loves Big Projects, and it will undertake more Three Gorges/Northern Water Diversion style Big Projects to try to solve this, but I think you have to be pretty optimistic to think that monster infrastructure works are going to address the basic fact that there isn’t enough water in the country and much of what there is is ruined and the situation is getting worse while we watch.

You think there is urban migration now, wait until people are going thirsty.

Peter: Thanks for the information - much appreciated. Will certainly look into that Jingdezhen suggestion. According to Xinhua, about 100,000 people live with schistosomiasis in Jiangxi - actually the central government recently announced a sanitary toilet building drive.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/24/content_7138148.htm

Michael: Thanks for the update. I was down in Lijiang in April and the “Jade Dragon Snow Mountain” was missing the snow part - it wasn’t even particularly warm at the time. Many locals said they had never seen it looking so bare at that time of year.

You are correct when you note how people want China covered like it’s expected to be covered. However, part of that can be blamed on the downfall of good journalism first and foremost.

It is, or was, possible to travel much of the way from Nanchang to Jingdezhen across the lake on one of those Sputnik-era hydrofoils as seen on the Yangzi, but it was a pretty depressing experience even in summer.

When casting about for stories in the area, something about the collapse of Jingdezhen as a ceramics centre might be worth tackling–the ancient kilns have been coming down as the city centre is redeveloped in the usual identikit way. Out on the fringes it is (or was) possible to find the odd operation still going, and even some shuǐduì going, which is a bit of a treat.

But your freelance contact is quite right. Most editors in London or New York (or just about anywhere else) have decided what China’s like without ever having taken their rapidly spreading rear ends anywhere near the country, and they’ll tell you what the country’s about. If you insist on writing incisively your choice of outlets certainly narrows.

The sooner China gets treated by newspapers like Germany or India (for example), the better.