The explosion chronicles

With the Yi River on one side and the Balou Mountains on the other, the village of Explosion was founded 1000 years ago by refugees fleeing a volcanic eruption.

But in the post-Mao era, the name takes on a new significance as the rural community grows explosively from a small village to a town to a city to a vast megalopolis.

Behind this rapid expansion are three rival clans linked together by a web of ambition, madness and greed.

The four Kong brothers; Zhu Ying, the daughter of the former village chief; and Cheng Qing, who starts out as a secretary and goes on to become a powerful political and business figure in her own right, transform their hometown into a Babylon of modern times - an unrivalled urban superpower built on lies, sex and thievery.