Wangxian Valley, China

Yep

Not sure about this place specifically, but before we went and built dams, a lot of these river valleys would flood seasonally. I'd wager the buildings closer to the river are newer than those further away.

Hell, my hometown of Wuhan still floods occasionally and that's post Three Gorges upstream

There's a really good documentary made by a Japanese filmmaker about some of the poorest parts of China and the government's poverty alleviation schemes here

One of the Yi villages in Sichuan is located 1400m above sea level (the capital of Sichuan, Chengdu is 500m, for reference). The cliff side villagers used to have to climb almost 800m of cliffs to go back home if they decide to come down from the mountain, before the government funded stairs so the way up and down is now "only" a 3km stairway where you ascend 800 meters.