Hard work, hospitality hallmarks of stint in sands

"Where are all the people?"

I asked this question somewhat rhetorically several times as my colleague, Hou Liqiang, and I were being driven to the Mengxi Otog Front Banner Photovoltaic Base project site, where a seemingly endless number of solar panels were being erected on a vast, sandy field.

As we headed to the site, all I could see out the window was a blue sky above and flat land with patches of grass, with the occasional sheep or goat munching on some of the blades. But there weren't many people out there in the rural, southwest corner of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.