Chinese steel production: abandoned mills/broken lives

While China’s leaders struggle to control their country’s economic transition, Tangshan’s residents are left to reminisce about the golden era of double-digit growth.

Fan Jiangqiang, 47, a local entrepreneur, said the region’s halcyon days had come in 2008 and 2009 when China’s galloping economy saw steel consumption soar and the acrid smoke above his home signalled that business was booming.