Review of Hessler's Country Driving

I recently finished Peter Hessler’s Country Driving, A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory, and have been mulling over what to say about this 400+ page tome. This book captures—in three acts—some of the huge changes (transformations, really) in rural China as the result of building new expressways and roads during the first decade of the twenty-first century.

Hessler, a longtime Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker and author of The Oracles Bones and River Town, divides Country Driving into three “books”--The Wall, The Village, and The Factory. Each of these “books” stand alone as complete stories, but read in succession, they paint a uniform portrait of the types of large-scale economic and social changes these roads are facilitating. 

In The Wall, Hessler documents his 7,000-mile trip as he follows the Great Wall (Changcheng) across northern China. A fact for your next game of Trivial Pursuit: The Great Wall is not one continuous wall built during one dynasty, but really a system of walled fortresses from many different dynasties (the Ming, Qin, Northern Wei, etc…) Hessler describes his adventures driving the City Special (a white Jeep with purple detailing) through remote regions, meeting locals who lead him to the ruins, and picking up hitchhikers who “pat the dog” (the motion for hitching a ride in China). The rich description of the physical geography and detailed history of the Great Wall are sure to be of interest to history and archeology buffs.

The Village focuses on Hessler’s six years in Sancha, a rural village north of Beijing. Early on, Hessler, who is renting a house in the village, becomes accepted into the local community after driving the sick child of local farmer Wei Ziqi to the hospital.  Hessler follows the changes in the small town after the local road is paved and tourists begin to the visit the countryside to experience “the simpler life.”  His friend Wei Ziqi (the farmer) is able to realize his dreams of becoming an entrepreneur by opening a guest house and restaurant. Television and packaged food becomes a staple in the house, and his friend purchases his first car.  But this new cash flow also has its downside. The town is unprepared to deal with the sudden increase in garbage, the previously small and underweight Wei child becomes overweight from packaged snacks, and Hessler's friend Wei Ziqi becomes stressed out from business deals. This sections leaves you wondering if the positives of the new highway actually outweigh the negatives.

In The Factory, Hessler follows the rise of a small bra ring (the metal components that hold a bra strap together—a picture would have been nice here!) factory in the Lishui Economic Development Zone, a newly opened area that is a sixty-minute drive (via the new Jinliwen Expressway) to the port city of Wenzhou. If you have ever wondered how a factory is started in China, this is the section for you.  Hessler takes you through the entire process, from construction of the factory and hiring of workers to manufacturing the first product and looking for the first customers. Later, he documents the factory’s move to Ouhai, another economic zone south of Wenzhou. This section addresses the complexities of underage workers in Chinese factories (Hessler’s wife Leslie Chang also looks at this issue in her book Factory Girls—another fascinating read), as well as the intricacies of “pulling guanxi” (la guanxi), a necessity of doing business in China.  One take-away from this section: The chemicals used to produce pleather  (you know, fake leather), which is also produced in Lishui, are so toxic that young women who have long-term exposure to it (DMF) are known to suffer liver damage and an increased risk of stillbirths. Yikes! I’ll buy real leather from now on, thank you.

This book is not for someone who is looking for a quick, light-hearted read, but if you want to better understand the changes that have happened in rural China in the last decade (yes, they've been huge and have had long-lasting social, economic, and environmental effects) and meet the people they have affected, then this is the book for you!