Sunday, May 11, 2008

Rural Life in Jinshan

Finding information on rural life in the Jinshan District was difficult, however, I will be able to enrich my blog after we visit the countryside in a few days.
The Jinshan District (or 金山区), is one of the largest of Shanghi's 19 districts. It is located in the southwest part of the city. There are over 550,000 people living in 586 sq. kilometers. The Jinshan District has beautiful beaches, and is deeply rooted in cultural traditions.
Some of these traditions include black ceramic arts and crafts, and peasant paintings. Although I could not find much information on the Jinshan District in general, I did find a few resources discussing the well known traditional peasant paintings. These paintings were popularized in the late 70's when peasants discovered beautiful paintings created by the farmers. Their art was put on display at the Shanghi Art Museum and the art quickly became famous, and called the "Jinshan Farmer's Paintings."
The Jinshan District has undergone some developement in recent years. Leaders followed an approach described as, “recognizing the situation, facing up to the difficulties, solving problems, seizing opportunities and making progress.” There has always been, and remains considerable agricultural activity, however, industrial progress has been made and an infrastructure is being built. One major company taking advantage of this progress is Shanghi's Petrochemical Company, which is headquartered in the district.

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