In Loufan, Shanxi Province

TRAVELLING from the big city to the provincial outskirts of China's capital is like stepping off a cold concrete pavement onto a carpet of grass.

The city is orderly and predictable but cold and impersonal. But as one enters into the rural periphery of Shanxi Province, the people are warmer, more forthcoming and genuine.

In a township I visited up in Loufan county called Miaowan with a humanitarian team, our host was effusively apologetic for what they thought were very poor conditions we had to endure up in the mountains.

Miaowan Township is the poorest township in Loufan with a population of 8,999 people scattered across a dry and inhospitable hilly terrain.

"Ni men xing ku le," our host kept saying to us, which means "we apologise for putting you through so much hardship".

Here I was met with a different kind of 'social capital'. One that the modern city of Beijing or Singapore for that matter, lack - hospitality from the heart.

There were no walls about the locals. Their hand shakes, their smiles and their 'thank yous' were not a choreographed display of etiquette like that of the Olympics. While they spared no efforts to present their best to us, it was not out of pride or pomp, but a sincere desire to give of their best to their guests.

"Up here in the village, we are more backward, so we are not able to offer you the same comforts as in the city. But we hope you will bear with us," Mr Yang Bing, Director of the Taiyuan (Municipality) Poverty Reduction & Development Office, said in Mandarin at the lunch table after we had checked in to our accommodation.

In all honesty, our conditions were far from uncomfortable and as we visited the various villages in the township, farmers came up to us with fresh vegetables from their fields as a token of their hospitality. Their voices were boisterous, like those I encountered at the Beijing airport, but the tone was characteristically different. It was one of excitement and jubilation.

It was far too short a visit but it left me wondering, while this place sits far removed from the relentless development in the city, is there something in this place that still needs protecting - its social fabric?

While we progress in the accumulation of economic capital, have we been too quick to exchange that for the regression of real human capital - that of affection without pretension, cooperation without intention, and generosity without condition?