Behind China's Great Wall

2000 Vol. 3: May/June

A thousand years ago, they descended upon China's heartland from the north...these horse-riding Mongolian conquerors of the world. They were the mighty Khan's men. They came to rule, but for a brief time. They have remained for a millennium. Today they are among the region's poorest and least educated peoples. The Donxiang, as they are known, eke out a survival existence as potato farmers in the dry, barren hills of southern Gansu Province.