No Joy in the Courtyard of Happiness

摘要

The 550 residents of Jianxin, a village in a picturesque valley three hours' drive from Beijing, used to dwell in ramshackle houses perched on steep hills. Summer's heavy rains often caused floods and mudslides, making the roads impassable and leaving the villagers stranded for weeks. That's until Beijing classified Jianxin as "unfit to live" and started moving its residents into a new apartment complex of 200-plus units, with a health clinic, a day-care center, and a landscaped enclosure dubbed the Courtyard of Happiness.