![Wang Bin, his mother and niece outside their home on Route 312 in central China.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/fe099f9/2147483647/strip/true/crop/140x137+0+0/resize/880x861!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fprograms%2Fmorning%2Ffeatures%2F2004%2Faug%2Fchina_road%2Fwangbin4_mom140-568e5d54f9496defce384e697a9ab89a382fe57e.jpg)
Rob Gifford, NPR /
A small town on the edge of the Gobi Desert symbolizes the problems faced by rural China. The mother of a 21-year-old unemployed man wishes he would marry, but it's impossible to find a wife because China's one-child policy results in a shortage of women.
Farther down Route 312, an arid village suffers a water shortage caused when corrupt local officials seized control of the supply. Asked what he can do about it, a resident is resigned to answer: "endure."
In the fourth of seven reports on his 3,000-mile journey across China, NPR's Rob Gifford tells stories of hard life in China's countryside.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.