中国十四亿人如何吃饱？

逛Quora（外国知乎）看到一篇帖子，有人问：中国如何生产足以养活十几亿人的粮食？是自给自足还是部分进口？

作者：Janus Dongye（剑桥大学博士，爱好地缘政治学，对中国历史地理感兴趣）

翻译：水利水电资料库

注：框线内为原文，框外为翻译

Seeing is believing. Open your Google Earth and have a look at what is really going on in China from above. Western media won’t normally tell you about this.

I will guide you through and point you where to look at.

Here are the coordinates:

Location 1: Ningde Bay, Fujian, China (26°43'02.8"N 119°57'45.2"E)

Our first destination is the coastal area in Fujian province.

眼见为实。打开谷歌地球，从上帝视角看看中国大地正在发生什么。西方媒体一般不会报道这些。

我将引导你看一些地方。

以下就是这些坐标点：

地点一：福建宁德港（东经119°57'45.2"，北纬26°43'02.8"）

首先来看福建省沿海地区。

If we zoom in, we can find millions of floating houses and cages on the sea surface.

把地图放大，就可以看到海面上漂着上百万个房子和网笼状物体。

If you look around the coastline from Zhejiang province to Guangdong province along the 1000 miles, you can see those floating cages are virtually “everywhere”.

从浙江到广东的1600多公里的海岸线上，几乎到处都是类似的网笼状物体。

What are those? They are actually Chinese “seafood farms”.

事实上，那些东西是中国的“海鲜养殖场”。

Instead of going out to the oceans and catching wild seafood, why not stay in the same place and raise your own seafood? And you can actually make more money with much less effort from raising fish, shrimps, crabs, lobsters, clams, etc.

It is not just sea or ocean waters that are being farmed, Chinese farmers find any possible open water such as reservoirs, rivers, lakes for farming their seafood/freshwater food.

比起出海捕捞野生海鲜，在同一个地方养殖海鲜，不仅可以少一些精力，还能收获更多鱼、虾、蟹、龙虾、贝类等，挣的钱也水涨船高。

除了海水养殖，中国渔民在任何开阔的水域——比如水库、河流、湖泊——养殖水产品。

Imagine each of the cages contains tens of fishes and crabs. That’s A LOT of FISH!

So how much seafood does China consume?

It is estimated that the global demand for seafood consumption is 143.8 million tonnes per year and China alone has the largest seafood consumption (65 million tonnes, 45% of global consumption), followed by the European Union (13 million tonnes), Japan (7.4 million tonnes), the United States (7.1 million tonnes) and India (4.8 million tonnes). 

As we know, both China and India have a similar population but China consumes 12 times more seafood than India, despite the fact that India is in a better geographical position surrounded by warmer oceans in a tropical fishing-rich region.

Among the 65 million tonnes of seafood consumed in China, only 15 million tonnes are caught from the wild, the rest of 50 million tonnes are all raised by aquaculture “farming”. In contrast, 90% of Japanese seafood consumption is from wild catch. Thanks to seafood farming, normal Chinese families can afford cheap seafood in their daily meal. This is a typical family get-together dinner settings: You can see lots of them are seafood!

假如每个网箱可以养殖几十条鱼虾，那总量也相当可观。

中国的海鲜消费量是多少呢？

据估计每年全球海鲜消费总量大约1.44亿吨，中国是最大的海鲜消费国，每年消费6500万吨海产品，占全球总量的45%，欧盟以1300万吨位列第二、日本以740万吨位列第三、美国710万吨、印度480万吨……

众所周知，中国的人口总量比印度多不了多少，但中国的海产品消费量是印度的12倍，尽管印度的地理条件从渔业资源上来看更理想——位于拥有温暖海水的热带，渔业资源丰富。

在中国每年消费的6500万吨海产品里，只有1500万吨是捕捞的野生海鲜，其余都来自水产养殖农场。而日本90%的海鲜消费来自捕捞。得益于海鲜养殖，中国普通家庭日常饮食也可以消费得起便宜的海鲜。下图为典型中国家庭的团圆饭，海鲜占了很大一部分。

Location2:Nanxun,Huzhou,Zhejiang,China(30°46'14.5"N 120°09'02.9"E)

Our next destination is the vast flood plain of between the Yangtze River, Taihu Lake, and Qiantang River. Thanks to the abundance of fresh water carrying nutrients from the river upstream, this area is so productive that it has raised over 100 million people here. And it is one of the most densely populated areas of China. This area is very similar to the flood plains in Bangladesh, West Bengal in India, Saigon in Vietnam etc.

What have the Chinese done differently compared to other densely populated flooded plains in India and Bangladesh?

Instead of growing rice, the Chinese have been growing a variety of “water food” that can sell at higher prices and makes them become richer than if they were growing rice. If you zoom in, you will find millions of fish ponds instead of rice fields. Besides the fish ponds, you might identify lots of green trees grown around them.

地点二：浙江湖州南浔

下面请看长江、太湖和钱塘江一带的冲积平原。上游丰富的淡水资源带来了大量的养分，滋养了这一带的1亿人口。这也是中国人口密度最高的地区之一。

相比种植水稻，养殖水产品可以卖出更高的价格，尽早实现财务自由。放大，你会看到成千上百万的鱼塘，而不是稻田。在鱼塘周围，你还可以看到很多郁郁葱葱的树木。

These trees are mulberry trees used for silkworm farming. Over the past two thousand years, the Chinese have developed many sophisticated and sustainable agriculture ecosystems around these areas. One most famous eco-cycle is the fish-mulberry tree-silk cycle as shown in the following graph:

这些树是桑树，是用来养蚕的。

桑树、蚕、鱼塘→桑基鱼塘，不用多介绍吧。

Chinese farmers have been exploiting the ecosystem in fish, silk farming for thousands of years without knowing the concept of “sustainable development”. Nowadays, it is evolved into multiple cycles of “recycling” on the same land:

在“可持续发展”这个概念没有发明（提出）之前，几千年前，中国农民就懂得了利用鱼-桑-蚕生态系统。如今，这个系统发展成对同一片土地的多次循环利用：

However, in order to raise more fish in the ponds, you need an aerator that pumps air into the water, otherwise, the fishes would not have enough oxygen to breathe. In the following picture, the aerator is the white dot in the centre of each pond.

然而要在鱼塘里养更多鱼，就需要用增氧泵向水里灌入空气，使鱼可以呼吸到足够的氧气。下图中，每个鱼塘中间的白点就是一个增氧泵。

Having an aerator requires every fish pond to be connected to electricity. How to generate electricity for the aerators? Yes, you are right: have solar panels.

那么多的增氧泵就需要消耗大量的电。怎么向增氧泵供电呢？Yep! 就是铺设太阳能电池板。

From Google Earth, you can see that solar panel fish ponds are already taking over some of the traditional mulberry fish ponds in China. Some of the areas in Huzhou area have already installed solar panels.

从谷歌地球上你可以看到，桑基鱼塘已逐步被太阳能供电的鱼塘替代。湖州的部分地区已经覆盖了太阳能电池板。

Local fishermen and farmers are learnning the latest solar technology and sustainable techniques provided by professionals from the local Chinese government.

Why are the local Chinese governments so eager to promote high tech to the local farmers? In order for an official to gain promotion to the next rank, he or she has to demonstrate their “government performance”. Solar panel fish ponds is one of the best indicators for “promotion” as it fits well in the sustainable development initiative.

From this, you might understand why China has dominated the world’s silk production (84%), and freshwater fish production (66%) and solar energy generation (25.8%). In the Zhejiang, Jiangsu area, rural people eat fish almost every day. Some say that’s why people from these regions are more clever than other regions of China.

Eco-cycle option 2: lotus root - fish

In some fish ponds, you can also grow other kinds of vegetables while raising fish. One of the most widely grown vegetables is the lotus root. China lotus root production is 11 million tonnes which accounts for 90% of world production and 60% of the world export. Not only Chinese people like to eat them, but most of the lotus root production is exported to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

事实上，在地方政府提供的专业辅助下，当地农民和渔民开始学习最先进的太阳能技术和可持续发展技术。

为什么中国地方政府如此积极的推广高科技？因为官员晋升和政绩挂钩。与可持续发展的理念非常契合的光伏鱼塘规模，就是考虑晋升的最好指标之一。

从这一点你就可以理解中国为何能支配着全球的丝绸产量、淡水水产，太阳能发电量了，因为这个生产全球84%的丝绸、66%的淡水鱼、25.8%的太阳能发电量。甚至在江浙的农村地区，人们几乎每天都吃鱼。据说这也是江浙人脑子聪明的原因所在。

另一种生态循环是莲藕鱼塘。

在某些鱼塘里，你可以在养鱼的同时同时种种植蔬菜，其中最常见的蔬菜就是莲藕。中国每年莲藕产量达1100万吨，占全球总产量90%，出口量占全球60%。不光中国人爱吃藕，大部分莲藕也出口到了韩国、日本、越南。

Lotus roots are one of my favourite vegetables too, I hope China can promote this delicious root for the rest of the world to enjoy as well.

Eco-cycle option 3: canola oil - bee- fish & crab

You can also grow rapeseed using the same principle. Instead of using fertilizers, at each winter, Chinese farmers dig the “nutrient mud” from the bottom of the water and stack on the bank. And then they grow different plants such as rapeseeds or taros on the mud. After thousands of years of continuous cultivation, the field has become something like this:

莲藕也是我最喜欢的蔬菜之一，希望中国能加大推广力度，让全世界人民都享受这种美味。

第三种生态循环是芥菜-蜜蜂-鱼虾。

也可以用同样的方法来种油菜。每年冬天，农民们把河底富含养分的淤泥挖上来堆在河堤上，在上面种上油菜和芋头，不用施肥。经过上千年的耕种，农田就变成这样了：

Location3:Duotian(垛田镇),Xinghua,Jiangsu,China 32°56'51.9"N 119°51'50.4"E

There are no roads. You can only navigate around using boats. Of course, that is why China is also the leading world producer of rapeseed oil (22% of global production).

地点三：江苏省兴化市垛田镇

这里没有路，只能坐船。也正因如此，中国才成为全世界头号菜籽油生产国，产量占全球总量的22%。

油菜花的繁荣带动了养蜂产业的繁荣。中国蜂蜜产量占全球30%。

Actually, one-third of the honey consumed in the US are directly or indirectly from China. To avoid tariffs from the US, Chinese honey exporters would first export their honey to India, Philippines and Malaysia. Then they change labels and alter them to domestic production and sell them to the US. I’m sure this happens to other products too.

事实上，美国蜂蜜消费中有1/3直接或间接来自中国。为了避免关税，中国蜂蜜出口商先将蜂蜜出口到印度、菲律宾和马来西亚，再在当地重新贴标改成当地产品，然后再出口到美国。我认为其他产业也有类似的操作。

Besides honey, this area is also where the most famous Chinese mitten crabs are produced. They can sell at $60 per kilo, therefore only the middle-class Chinese can afford this.

除了蜂蜜，这里还是中国著名的大闸蟹产区。大闸蟹可以卖到每公斤60美元，只有中产才吃得起。

Location4:Shouguang, Shandong, China (36°44'15.9"N 118°44'14.7"E)

Our third destination is the great plain area in Shandong province.

地点四：山东寿光 山东平原

If we zoom in, we can find millions of reflecting “shiny” houses on the plain area. Try looking around, it is “everywhere”.

What are those? They are greenhouses designed to provide regulated and controlled conditions such as temperatures and humidity for vegetables and fruits to grow.

放大，可以找到上百万个“闪光”的小屋。看看周围，它们无处不在。

这是什么？是蔬菜水果大棚，可以调节湿度温度的那种。

In the greenhouse, you can grow all kinds of different vegetables and fruits several times per year regardless of the time of the year. That means you can get several times more vegetable and fruit yield compared to a normal field.

For example, you need at least 52 days to grow lettuce from seeds until you can harvest them in a greenhouse. That means you can grow 7 times each year. That is 7x efficiency.

大棚里，一年可以种植好几轮蔬菜水果。这意味大棚种植的产量比传统农田高出几倍。

比如，大棚里种生菜，从播种到收获需要52天，这样一年可以种7轮，那就是7倍的效率，7倍的快乐。

Therefore greenhouses can significantly improve agriculture output in a limited space, which sounds perfect to the Chinese. Eager for promotion, the local farmers to install greenhouses with loans from the “Chinese Rural Cooperative Bank”.

所以，大棚种植可以显著提高单位空间内农作农产品产量，这对中国人而言简直太棒了。为了推广蔬菜大棚，中国北方地区农民可以从农村合作银行贷款搭建大棚。

此外，农民还在大棚内安装了物联网监控系统。通过培训，农民们学会了用手机监控温室内部环境参数，比如二氧化碳浓度、光线强度、土壤温度等等。

As a result, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation, the vegetable and fruit production and consumption of China is around 700 million tonnes, which is 40% of the world consumption. Compared to India (180 million), China achieved 3.8x the amount of vegetable and fruit production, despite most of the population in India claim to be vegetarians, and despite the fact that the arable land in China is less than India. The secret key is the greenhouse.

Thanks to greenhouses, Chinese people can enjoy cheaper and a bigger variety of vegetables than any other country in the world all year round. You can check Wikipedia, basically, China tops the chart in almost every kind of non-tropical vegetable production, far outpacing second place. There are vegetables that are not ranked because they are only specific to East Asia, such as the “garlic chives” (韭菜).

联合国粮农组织的统计数据，中国每年的蔬果产量和消费量在7亿吨左右，占世界总量的40%。与印度相比，印度蔬果年产量大约1.8亿吨，中国是它的3.8倍，而印度适宜耕种的土地面积比中国多，尽管印度大部分国民声称自己是素食者。秘诀就是大棚种植。

有了大棚，中国人可以食用相比世界上其他地方品种多价格更便宜的蔬果。除了除了热带蔬果，中国的每一种蔬菜产量几乎都是世界第一，而且远远甩开第二名。许多东亚特有的蔬菜甚至都没有上榜，比如韭菜。

Similarly, for fruit production, China tops the global chart in almost every kind of non-tropical fruit production, far outpacing second place as well.

I was once pranked and called as “racist” when I invited a black friend over for a summer BBQ with lots of watermelons. I proved my innocence by showing him these statistics:

In Japan, a watermelon typically costs 2000 yen ($18) and in China, you can afford a much larger watermelon just in 10RMB ($1.5). And watermelons in China are sweeter if they’re grown in Xinjiang. If you love watermelons or any other melons, come to China, especially Kumul in Xinjiang.

除热带水果外，中国的各种水果产量与蔬菜类似几乎都是世界第一，远超第二名。不信可以看看这张统计表：

在日本，一个西瓜能卖2000日元（18美元），在中国，这些钱可以买十几个了。新疆的西瓜也特别甜，如果你喜欢吃西瓜或其他什么瓜，新疆哈密是最好的目的地。

Location 5: Lhasa, Tibet, China (29°41'52.3"N 91°09'18.6"E)

Our fourth destination is also about greenhouses but in Tibet. Use your Google Earth and navigate to any town in Tibet. You will always find greenhouses.

I mean, the Chinese government has also forced Tibetans to build a massive amount of greenhouses on the Tibetan plateau. 

地点五：西藏拉萨

再来看看西藏的大棚。用谷歌地球看西藏的任何城镇，都能看到大棚。

政府也鼓励藏民在青藏高原上建大棚，藏民在大棚里忙于照料种番茄，自然去寺庙祈祷的时间少了。

As a result, the average vegetable price in Tibet has reduced by 90% over the past decade and they don’t have to import vegetables from nearby provinces anymore. Most of the Tibetans can finally afford to eat watermelons. Who doesn’t like eating watermelons?

You know that most Tibetans historically only eat yak meat, milk, cheese, and bread? They couldn’t grow anything in such a harsh climate. Only monks could have the luxury to eat vegetables. Now it is the solid proof that the Chinese government didn’t just destroy temples in Tibetan culture but helped them eat vegetables and fruits.

蔬果大棚在藏区的普及使西藏蔬菜价格在十年里下降90%，产量也上去了就不用再从邻省运了。西藏人民终于吃得起西瓜了。谁不喜欢吃西瓜呢？

众所周知，过去，历多数藏人只吃牦牛肉、奶制品和面食。在那样的恶劣气候条件下无法种植蔬菜水果。只有僧人可以奢侈吃得起蔬菜。现在大家都吃得上蔬菜水果了。

Location 6: Kokdala, Ili, Xinjiang, China 43°43'51.2"N 80°35'21.5"E.

Kokdala is a city in northern Xinjiang, China, bordering Kazakhstan's Almaty Region to the west. And here is the satellite image of the border between China and Kazakhstan.

地点六：新疆伊犁可克达拉

可克达拉位于新疆北疆，西边比邻哈萨克斯坦的阿拉木图。下面的卫星图表示出了中哈边境线。

And you can clearly see there are more green farms on the Chinese side. On Kazakhstan's side, there is nothing but barren lands.

显然，中国一侧的绿色生意盎然，哈萨克斯坦一侧似乎是人迹罕至的荒原。

And actually, these lands are just wasted land as their soils are too acid and there is limited water to grow any food. You can only count on the water from the melting glaciers in the surrounding mountains. For people in Kazakhstan, it is too expensive to grow and they don’t have a big market to sell their products. That’s why those Kazakhs in Kazakhstan decided not to cultivate on those lands.

On the Chinese side, all the barren lands are cultivated by the special division of the Chinese government: XPCC . This is a state enterprise with a military background. XPCC has amassed 2.6 million employees and farmers including Uyghurs and Hans and operate as a giant organisation. Therefore due to its scale, the cost of operation can be reduced and their market can be directly connected to the whole Chinese market.

Since the past three decades, XPCC has been sending its agriculture professionals to Israel every year to learn Israeli’s most advanced agriculture technology in a similar desert climate. Those Chinese students then returned to China and started cultivating those lands using the latest technology such as drip irrigation etc. Once they found those technologies can actually mature into profits, they would sell some of the newly cultivated lands to local Uyghur, Han, and Kazakhs families or hire them directly in the cooperations.

事实上，这里是一片荒地，土壤酸性高且水资源太少，无法种植农作物。而周围雪山上的冰血冰川融水又太少。对哈萨克斯坦人来说，在这里种植农作物成本太高，而且没有足够大的市场消化。所以哈萨克斯坦人决定放弃这片土地。

而在中国这一侧，所有荒地都被新疆生产建设兵团开垦。现在新疆生产建设兵团拥有260万员，有汉族人也有维吾尔族人。得益于如此庞大的规模，运营成本下降，跟广大内地市场直接对接。

过去30年来，新疆生产建设兵团每年都派农业学生去以色列学习最先进的农业技术。这些学生回国后把滴灌法等先进技术付诸实践。当技术条件成熟可以投入生产时，他们会把新开垦的土地卖给当地农民，或直接请他们加入合作社。

维吾尔族和哈萨克族人

节约水资源和降低农业成本，部分当地维吾尔族和哈萨克族人接受再教育，学习汉语和最先进的滴灌技术。

Yes, the drip irrigation technique can significantly reduce water usage and cost. Thanks to the Israeli and domestic Chinese technology, they make the barren land in Xinjiang more and more fertile and productive.

滴灌法可以显著减少了用水量，大大节约了成本。感谢以色列和中国本土的技术支持，使新疆的荒地成了高产的沃土。

So what are those people growing on the new land?

Tomatoes, chillies, melons, grapes, and cotton. All of them can sell higher prices than wheat.

那他们在这些新开辟的土地上种什么呢？

番茄、辣椒、瓜果、葡萄和棉花。这些农产品可以买到比麦子更高的价格。

Thanks to the strong sunlight and cold nights in Xinjiang, those products are normally sweeter and tastier, so that they can sell for higher prices to the markets in China and the world. In China, people prefer to buy fruits from Xinjiang than the rest of China because of its great taste and quality.

Actually, agricultural efficiency is so high in Xinjiang that it produces much more than the Chinese market actually needs. Instead of relying on the “free market” causing the prices to drop and hurt those Uyghur farmers, XPCC, as a state enterprise, is pushing to sell those products to the rest of the world at higher prices. 

新疆昼夜极大的温差使作物更加甘甜可口，所以在中国和国际市场上可以卖更高的价格。中国消费者喜欢买新疆水果，因为它好吃。

由于新疆农业生产的高效率，国内市场消化不了如此大的产量。为了不让维吾尔农民利润下滑，新疆生产建设兵团不依赖“自由市场”，转而积极开拓海外市场渠道，把农产品高价卖到国外去。

Location 6: Hejing, Bayingol, Xinjiang, China 42°18'36.1"N 86°36'15.4"E

What are those “red” lands in the middle of the desert?

地点七：新疆巴音郭楞蒙古自治州和静县

沙漠里这些红色的是什么？

If we zoom in, you can see it is actually the land of “tomatoes” — billions of tomatoes. You can imagine the amount by measuring the total area.

放大，就会发现这些是“番茄田”！无数的番茄。你可以想象多大的产量才能产生如此规模！

Next time you enjoy Italian spaghetti, Turkish kebab, or spreading Heinz ketchup on your chips, think about that, you might be eat tomatoes from Xinjiang. It might not directly say the tomatoes are from Xinjiang. These tomatoes might be first exported to a third country and get rebranded just like the honey.

China produces 56.3 million tonnes of tomatoes and dominates the world’s 1/3 tomato exports. Over 14 million are from Xinjiang. You can verify this by looking at the global top ten ketchup companies :

And just recently the Chinese government is trying to sell Xinjiang tomatoes to eastern Europe through the one belt one road initiative. As Xi Jinping just visited Italy this March 2019, I am not sure whether Italy is interested in Xinjiang’s tomatos or not after Xi Jinping’s visit at this time. The western media will never tell you.

Besides tomatoes and chillis, China is also the largest producer of grapes, accounting for 19.1% of global production. And the most and the best of grapes are from Turpan, Xinjiang. However, China really sucks at making wines from grapes.

下次你吃意大利面、土耳其烤肉、薯条的时候，可以想象一下这是来自新疆的番茄。当然，可能不是直接从新疆进口的，而是跟蜂蜜一样，经第三国转销的。

中国番茄年产量达5630万吨，出口量占全球1/3。

最近，中国政府还试图通过一带一路把新疆番茄卖到东欧去。2019年3月中国领导人访问意大利，意大利也极有可能会对新疆番茄感兴趣。西方媒体是不会报道这些事情的。

除了番茄和辣椒，中国还是世界最大的葡萄产国，产量占全球19.1%，最好的葡萄来自新疆吐鲁番。然而，中国酿造葡萄酒的技术确实不行。

Finally, let’s talk about the main crops such as rice, wheat, and corns in China. They are the most important food of all, not only to human beings but also to animals such as pigs, chickens, and cattle that produce meat and milk.

Here is a simple comparison between the top four producers across the world:

Arable Land: China 1086 India 1579 EU 1091 US 1631 (1000 km2)

Rice: China 208.1 India 169.5 EU 3.1 US 9.2 (million tonnes)

Wheat: China 134.3 India 98.5 EU 150.2 US 47.3 (million tonnes)

Corn: China 257.3 India 26.0 EU 60.9 US 366.2 (million tonnes)

As you can see, China is an all-around top crop producer compared to the other three regions. However, for a population of 1.4 billion, this is enough to be “filling” but still far from enough if the Chinese want to achieve similar “well-fed” status in per-capita consumption in terms of the developed country standard just like the EU and US.

Currently, there is just not enough arable land for China to produce enough crops to raise 1.4 billion people to the well-fed status. And what’s worse, the arable land in China is quickly shrinking as more and more land has been used for industries and cities.

最后，说说主食，水稻、小麦和玉米是最重要的粮食，不仅人要吃，猪、鸡、牛等家禽也要吃，因为它们要生产肉蛋奶。

下面是全球四大主粮食产区数据对比：

可耕地（千平方公里）：中国1086、印度1579、欧盟1091、美国1631

大米（百万吨）：中国208.1、印度169.5、欧盟3.1、美国9.2

小麦（百万吨）：中国134.3、印度98.5、欧盟150.2、美国47.3

玉米（百万吨）：中国257.3、印度26.0、欧盟60.9、美国366.2

可以看出，中国总体上是世界上最大的粮食生产国。生产的粮食足以养活14亿人，但距离离“吃得好”还有很长的路要走。

目前，中国耕地面积不足以生产足够的粮食让14亿人都“吃得好”，而且随着工业化和城镇化，可耕地面积还在减少。

Location 7: Xingtai, Hebei, China 37°35'54.1"N 114°55'20.8"E

To show you how the Chinese were quickly using up their precious land, our next destination is the great northern plain of China. This is where the most crops are grown in China. (Picture scale: top to bottom 1500km)

地点八：河北省邢台市

中国宝贵的土地资源是如何使用的？请看华北平原。中国绝大部分的农作物品种这里都有种植。（图片比例尺：下图南北距离1500公里）

If we zoom in to any location in the plain, for example, the Xingtai city, a 4th tier city, a “small” city with 7 million people. (Picture scale: top to bottom 60km).

The green fields are the farmlands. These white dots are actually villages. Each “dot” contains around 500 people. The larger white regions are towns with around 10k to 100k people.

As you can see, as more and more people are getting rich and building large houses on the farmlands, those green land would be running out gradually. It is estimated that China is losing around 3,000 km2 area of arable land every year. Those arable land would be turned into “white” and dead concrete land. This is obviously a disaster and the Chinese government has been trying every effort to regulate the land uses. However, you just can’t control the huge momentum of “urbanisation” so easily.

在这片平原上盲选一个地方，比如四线城市邢台，这是个“小”城市。有700万人口。（比例尺：南北距离60公里）

图中，绿色的是农田，白色的点是村庄，每个村有500人。比较大的白色区域是乡镇，人口从1万到10万不等。

可以看出，随着越来越多的人富起来了，就开始在原来的农田上盖大房子了，绿色的田野会越来越少。据估计，中国可耕地面积以3000平方公里左右的速度减少。长此以往，将造成灾难，中国政府也加大土地管控力度。但随着“城镇化”的趋势，土地管控越来越难。（此处不明白，城镇化加速，不是空出来更多土地可以耕种吗？）

Location 9: Qingyang, Gansu, China 35°41'00.7"N 107°40'38.3"E

The lack of arable land has been a “top concern” ever since the CCP has governed China. From the era of Mao Zedong, the CCP has been organising massive cultivations on hilly lands on different parts of China. There are countless examples. Here is the most significant one: Loess Plateau

This 640,000 km² plateau is actually not suitable for growing crops. But if you zoom in, you can see all the valleys, all the hills are converted to arable lands. From above, all the cultivated lands appeared like “roots”.

Just zoom in to any place, you would find all the hills are converted to terraces.

地点九：甘肃省庆阳市

从建国之初开始，可耕地资源匮乏的现实一直受到党和国家的高度重视。从毛主席时代起，政府就曾组织人民群众开垦山地。这样的例子有很多，以黄土高原为例：

黄土高原面积64万平方公里，原本不适合种植农作物。但如果放大看看，就会发现山谷、山坡都被开垦过了。从天上往下看，像植物根须般呈放射状的地方是农田。

再放大一点，就会发现那其实是梯田。

However, people have found that creating too much terraced land would cause land degradation and destructive mudslide during the monsoon season. From year 1999, the CCP realised that its previous massive cultivation campaign does not improve crop production significantly but instead has caused many floods and mudslides, then it halted the cultivation and proposed the “Returning Farmland to Forest Program (退耕还林)” campaign.

For those lands with low yield, farmers are forced to give up their land and they have to grow trees on them. And for the farmers who lost the land, the government would compensate the farmers with a fee that is equivalent to the field earnings.

The above picture shows the impact of the forestation and afforestation. This is proof that after many lessons, the CCP has gradually grasped the key to sustainable development.

Xi Jinping once said: “China highly values ecological and environmental protection. Guided by the conviction that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, the country advocates harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, and sticks to the path of green and sustainable development.” These are not empty words. Every “word” is backed by actual actions. 

The outcome of “Returning Farmland to Forest Program” is definitely causing the reduction of the arable land in China. However, despite the arable land degradation, thanks to the huge investment in agriculture technology, agriculture efficiency still improves, making its domestic crop production still increase.

One example is the new technology that allows you to grow rice using salty sea water.

后来人们发现，开垦太多梯田容易导致土地退化，雨季会发生泥石流等灾难。从1999年开始，政府就意识到开垦太多农田不仅不会提高产量，还会引发洪水和泥石流等自然灾害，所以发起了“退耕还林”运动。

农民们放弃那些产量低的农田，改在上面植树。放弃土地的农民会得到政府相当于种田收入的补贴。

上图可以看出退耕还林的效果。这体现中国政府吸取了过去的经验教训，逐渐理解了可持续发展的的关键。

中国领导人曾经指出，“中国高度重视生态环境保护，秉持绿水青山就是金山银山的理念，倡导人与自然和谐共生，坚持走绿色发展和可持续发展之路。”

这不是空话，每个字都得到了落实。

退耕还林工程减少了中国的可耕种土地面积，尽管存在土地退化现象，但在农业技术的巨大投入下，农业生产效率仍然得到了提升，粮食产量实现了持续增长。

比如其中一项技术就是可以在盐碱地里种植水稻。

Despite the domestic crop production increase, China is still not self-sustainable in terms of rice, wheat, and corn. It has to import 10% of its annual consumption from the rest of the world. However, most of them are not directly for human consumption.

Example 1: Beer and Baijiu production

尽管国内农作物产量提升，但中国依然不能在大米、小麦和玉米上自给自足，大约10%的粮食还是得靠从世界其他地区进口，然而其中大部分还不是给人食用的。

例一：酿造啤酒和白酒

Since 2006, China has become the world's largest producer of beer with 46.5438 million kiloliters, which is more than double that of the US. It has increased production by 4.9% annually. Besides wheat, China has to import most of the hop plant for beers from Germany and the USA.

And China is also the world’s leading producer of spirit alcohol. Most Chinese people don’t favor Whiskey or Vodka, but prefer drinking Baiju, which is more fragrant and rich in flavour. The Baiju production is around 13.6 million kiloliters, which is much more than western people consume. And the local rice wine made by individual Chinese households is not even counted!

2006年，中国成了全球最大的啤酒生产国，年产量达4654万千升，是美国的两倍。这个数字还在以每年4.9%的速度增长。除了进口小麦，中国的啤酒花也大部分靠从德国和美国进口。

中国同时也是全球最大的烈酒生产国。很多中国人喝不惯洋酒，而喜欢喝白酒。中国每年的白酒产量大约在1360万千升左右，远远多于西方人喝的烈酒。这还不算私人酿的米酒。

As a result, some parts of China has a much heavier drinking culture that the rest of the world is not even aware of. Let me tell you. It is much heavier than the British and the Russians.

Example 2: Pig and pork production

Global pork production

The above graph just shows how do the Chinese love pork so much. Some of the pigs raised in China fed on the corns imported from the USA and Brazil. This also applies to the chickens, cattle and other animals raised in China.

中国一些地方酒文化，外界人也没法领会的，甚至比战斗民族人还能喝。

例二：生猪和猪肉

全球猪肉产量

上图表明中国人非常喜欢吃猪肉。中国从美国和巴西进口的玉米有一部分被拿来喂了猪，鸡、牛等禽类畜类。

Conclusion

China is able to provide enough food more than just plain rice or wheat. The variety of food offered on the Chinese table is much more diverse and cheaper than most developed places in the world. This applies to “poor people” as well. This is based on my personal experiences and observations after traveling from many countries in Europe, the US, and Japan.

For example, in China, a group of eight people can sit at a round table, enjoying 20 different dishes including different meats, vegetables, desserts etc. They don’t have to worry about religious restrictions, allergic concerns, and personal spaces.

中国有能力提供足够多的不仅仅是米面的粮食。与大多数发达国家相比，中国人的餐桌上食物种类更多、价格更低。即使是穷人，吃的东西也没有多大差别。这是我基于游历欧洲、美国、日本等许多地方的个人感受得出的结论。

比方说，在中国，八个人一桌吃20个菜，包括各种肉类、蔬菜和甜点，他们不必担心宗教约束，过敏问题，也不像欧美那样注重餐桌桎梏。

In Shandong, the total dinner costs around $50. The same set of 20 dishes could cost $150 in Beijing/Shanghai/Taipei or $300 in California/Japan/Hong Kong etc. And we are not counting the beers and drinks. Actually, most people in California/Japan don’t have the luxury to enjoy 20 different dishes at all but it is more than common in China.

After this extremely long post, I hope you learned something new about China and also know how the Chinese can feed themselves more than just “enough”.

Thanks for reading 

在山东，这样一桌菜大约要花费50美元。而同样一桌菜在北京、上海、台北大约要150美元，在加州、日本、香港则要300美元左右。这还不包括各种饮料酒水。事实上，在日本或加州，基本没有人会一餐吃20道菜，但这在中国却很正常。

以上。希望有助于大家刷新对中国的认知，了解中国的粮食不仅仅只是“够吃”。

谢谢阅读。

*文章为作者独立观点，不代表本号立场

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