Between October 2005 and May 2006 De Morgen-journalist and sinologist Catherine Vuylsteke made three journeys throughout China accompanied by photographers Dieter Telemans, Tim Dirven and Jimmy Kets. They visited elderly peasants in their emptying villages in western China and accompanied rural migrants on their train journey to a better life. In Kunming they talked with pimps and prostitutes, in Shanghai with the newly rich and in Beijing and Chongqing with impoverished city dwellers. Their findings first appeared in the newspaper De Morgen and were published in book form on 1 March 2007 by Meulenhoff/Manteau.