Industrial past haunts former Beijing showcase

Beijing

RUST, dust and decay pervade a huge and largely abandoned steel plant in China's capital Beijing, where ghosts of the industrial past linger on, years after the facility was closed.

Tens of thousands of workers once toiled at the Capital Iron and Steel Works, a showcase for Communist leader Mao Zedong's attempts to rapidly modernise the then poverty-stricken nation. But production ended years ago, and shards of sunlight now pass through crumbled concrete walls of the complex's vast buildings, illuminating twisted metal debris strewn on the ground. Massive pipes leading to a cylindrical blast furnace are brown with rust, and train tracks which once ferried metal are overgrown with weeds and rotting leaves.