China Screen : Empty City

Yumen has been the first Chinese town where searchers found an oil field. At that time, the town was destined to a staggering economic career, which would be an example for small rural Chinese villages. The government invested so much to realize the Chinese dream: a very active economy bringing his inhabitants to be surrounded by richness. But soon resources run out and big oil companies abandon the town, leaving behind them empty buildings and unemployment for all the immigrants who came there looking for a job.

Fifty years after, the town is unrecognizable: even unemployed people left the town to go living and working somewhere else. Today Yumen is a ghost city. There are only desolate landscapes end empty buildings left. The only people who live in there are elderly and sick people who can’t afford a removal. They are resigned to die in this place, forgotten by their family. When the “Chinese miracle” is happening, it’s not useless remember the errors of the past. The current miracle could already lay the seed of downfall.

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