A film about the life in towns and villages of south and south-east China. The confrontation of the poor countryside with the rapidly evolving Chinese economy sharpens the conflict between tradition and a global society, giving a new view of our civilization.

The film shows the traditions and life of China, the three thousand years old, as well as the modern, forgotten villages in the jungle on the frontier with Burma and the unbelievable amount of modern goods and electric appliances shown at the all Chinese fair in Canton. The natural beauties (stone forest in Shilin) and historical monuments, garden in Su-zhou, pagodas and monasteries that stand besides factories, enormous enterprise zones and complexes that without a blink of an eye destroy the environment and the nature around themselves. Around the modern towns, you will find small villages where inhabitants live in bamboo shacks on piles in the middle of rotting ponds. These people play the traditional Chinese games just as naturally as they have fun at karaoke.

The film describes the life of poor Chinese families, their food, their entertainment and the hard work on rice fields. The creators of the film had the chance to see some of the most beautiful places in China, climb on mountains to find lost monasteries or cemeteries, all in all to film natural scenes that have never been filmed before.

In the commentary to the film where used passages of Lin Jutang's book "My nation and my homeland", which, although written in 1935, still perfectly describes the Chinese society.