KIRI SAKOR (Cambodia) • Crouching on a verge with a shovel in hand, 21-year-old Phan Mai uproots flowering shrubs for replanting. Her wide-brimmed hat provides little shield from the sun in this sprawling resort, shorn of the trees that once stood in Cambodia's largest national park.

Just around the corner, past a bridge with representations of mythical serpents moulded into the parapet, Chinese workers swarm over half-built faux European-style and contemporary villas. Above, the roar of helicopter rotor blades brings yet another group of Chinese guests who, on landing, are then ferried by golf carts into air-conditioned comfort.