Episode details

Available for over a year
It鈥檚 6.15am and over loudspeakers across quiet streets of Nanjiecun blares out a sound more familiar during the days of Chairman Mao - a song called The East is Red. As the sun rises, a huge white statue of Chairman Mao - surrounded by four equally huge portraits of Lenin, Marx, Stalin and Engels - become visible in the town鈥檚 main square. This the last Maoist collective in China, a little enclave of the past in the socialist market economy that China has now developed. How does their economy work and what is it like to live there? Meanwhile, at 3W Coffee in Beijing鈥檚 Silicon Valley district entrepreneurs are queuing up for their early morning burst of caffeine. This is Beijing鈥檚 first tech business incubator where you鈥檙e catapulted to the China of the 21st Century, with young people pushing the boundaries of the internet to create a very different China to that of Mao 60 years ago. Image: Maoist Square
Programme Website