lt’s often said that Chinese have an ancient connection to the land, given the country was for most of history an agrarian society. That agricultural land, though, has never been more valuable or contested than today with capital desperate to invest, rural residents debating who can build where, and land rights disputed in village halls and courts across the country.In this magazine issue, we investigate how traditional norms,land rights reforms, and new legal provisions intersect with good old-fashioned neighborly competition when rural residents build homes and businesses. Construction is booming in rural China, with homes becoming larger and larger, or being turned into campsites and homestays, often without safe construction practices or with damaging environmental consequences (and to the chagrin of fellow villagers concerned about how the construction infringes on their own plots). Meanwhile, many married women have been dispossessed of the rural land they are entitled to, despite laws explicitly forbidding the practice. We dig into their story and hear about their long fights for compensation.

We also take a step into a still-raging debate in China: Should parents be allowed to hit their children for discipline? Our reporter recounts her personal experience with corporal punishment as a child, and begins to understand why younger parents today are pushing back on the practice. In our travel section, our writer goes on the road in search of the Mongol Yuan dynasty’s old northern capital Xanadu, and finds the journey trickier on his motorbike than it once was on horseback. Elsewhere, we explore how China’s cities are finally tackling light pollution, take a photographic dive into a special gym for retired workers inside an old factory, and follow an amateur “relic hunter” who has spent years documenting China’s forgotten cultural and historical monuments.

Finally, we reveal our “Most China” photo competition winners.From a diverse array of images that brought us a spread of Chinese culture and society from pampered city pets to working desert camels, our judges selected a stunning collection as winners.Congratulations to them!