With about a hundred million people living below the poverty line, the Chinese government is struggling to spread wealth to the country's poorest pockets. Poverty is particularly widespread in China's ten western provinces that cover more than half the country. Here, many people feel angry that they are being left behind. Ethnic groups living in these provinces feel particularly hard done by, like the Moslem Uighurs in Xinjiang province and the Buddhists in Tibet.

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for a spreadsheet of development data to compare China's provinces.

for a print-friendly outline map of China and its provinces.

For more development data that compares China's provinces, visit www.unchina.org/undp/modules.php?op=modload&name;=News&file;=index&catid;=&topic;=11

An ambitious, multi-billion pound plan known as 'revive the west' or the 'Western Areas Development Strategy' may change all this. To improve the region's infrastructure, the government plans to build highways, railways, airports, gas pipelines and electric power grids. The plan also aims to protect the environment, planting trees and grass across 9.3 million hectares. To improve education and skills in the west, six thousand volunteer graduates have been chosen to move to western provinces to train people in schools, medical centres and on farms.

For more detail on the 'Western Areas Development Strategy', visit www.chinawest.gov.cn/english/asp/start.asp.

Many people are not prepared to wait for improvements in the poorer provinces and have headed east in search of work. In China, there are a hundred million 'floating people', moving to booming provinces like Guangdong. But the migration of so many people may be helping to spread HIV/AIDS.

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