Long Live Shougang Steel
At Pingguoyuan there is a giant abandoned factory. It is not exactly abandoned, a skeleton workforce still exists, but it is nowhere near the size it was when it was China's largest steel factory. This is Shougang Steel (首钢), which used to be home to 200,000 workers and 8.5 square kilometers in size. In the 2000's, before the Olympics, it began to be shut down for air quality reasons and the changing economy of the city from industrialization to something else, moved out further into the provinces. Now it is one of Beijing's "wastelands", lost or abandoned places that have yet to be developed into something else.
On a winter's day my friend and I take the bus out to Shougang's main gates and walk through. We wander through the almost empty factory, marveling at the massive unused and decaying industrial buildings. It is empty except for packs of blue coated workers who cycle by, ignoring us. . . as we wander through the ruins of a civilization.
Please take a look at a series of pictures taken that day. . .
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