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China, Yunnan province. Dounan, the city of flowers, || The Beijing central governments "strategy for the development of the West" wants to turn the most backward province of Yunnan in the southwest of the country into a world center of the flower industry. Already 200 000 farmers grow mostly carnations, roses and gerbera on their tiny plots of land. "Da peng”, big hut, they call their small greenhouses, narrow tunnels made from bamboo poles and thin plastic. Even the small farms producing mainly for the domestic market spray poisonous mixtures of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides without control and proper safeguard until they are dizzy. They call the white cloud "liquid medicine”. Exports to Ausstralia have to be additionally gased in a isolated room with a highly poisenous gas to kill insects. This gas reduces the vase life of the flowers dramatically. (KEYSTONE/LAIF/Hans-Juergen Burkard)