Giant skyscrapers tower unfinished and abandoned around a lake that forms the centerpiece of this new town. The wind blows through the empty hulk of what was supposed to be a multi-story hotel and restaurant complex. A salesman insists that people have moved into one of the few housing complexes to be completed around the shore, but as dusk falls only a handful of lights blink on. He offers to throw in a free car with every apartment purchased. This is Shenfu New Town in the northeastern province of Liaoning, built to handle the overflow from the once-booming industrial cities of Shenyang and Fushun. “Build it and they will come,” the saying goes, but here, in China’s industrial heartland, people are leaving instead of coming. For much of the […]