Contrasts?

One of the never ending aspects of China is its glaring contrasts.
I should be accustomed to this - coming from developing Africa - but perhaps here it is all so new and therefore more obvious.
This city Lanzhou has over 2 million people. It is situated on the Yellow River - and we rode 75 Km along the river to get to it - and we had industrial developement the entire distance. The skyline is punctuated with high rise buildings under constuction and I counted at least 30 obvious huge cranes. Yet just off the highway, there is intense rural agriculture, and even the servitudes of the expressways are carefully cultivated.

There was one blatant example of this contrast.

It was a glorious morning . Colours were luminous and the air crisp and clear. I had stopped endlessly to capture images of the ongoing harvest. In the distance, there was a rumbling which as we proceeded, grew to a cacophony of ear bashing sound - shattering the peace of the countryside. The source soon became clear. In the air, were at least 10 MIG 21 Fighter jets, with their distinct Delta wing formation- all doing circuits and bumps from a nearby Airforce base. And this went on for at least 3 hours.
A haiku began to form-

Peasants till the soil
Fighter jets plough the sky-
Food for man or war?