China's slowing economy: the view from the Henan heartland
Considered the cradle of Chinese civilization, the central province of Henan and its 100 million-strong population typifies China's transformative yet often tumultuous economic ascent.
Long the sort of impoverished backwater that people left in search of better lives, Henan has in recent years enjoyed the fruits of an economic boom that has raised incomes and given people a taste of middle class lifestyles and aspirations.
Left: Fishermen Sun Lianxi, 32, and Sun Genxi, 44, travel down the Yellow River to cast their net. For generations, the Suns plied their fishing boats up and down the Huai and Yellow Rivers, living off their daily catch. Like their grandfather and father before them, brothers were born on a fishing boat. China's economic ascent has tantalised the brothers. "These high-rise buildings have nothing to do with me. They're for others, not me," Lianxi says. "We don't have any part in it."
Right: The son of Sun Lianxi walks among the debris of their former housing. The Suns were owners of a large houseboat, enough to accommodate their clan of 17 spanning four generations under one weather-beaten roof. But as part of a broad-ranging environmental crackdown, local authorities in 2017 took over the houseboat in the name of minimising water pollution and over-fishing. With nowhere to go, the Suns erected temporary housing on the riverside but that too was swiftly dismantled by authorities. The Suns now live in tents of tarpaulin and plastic sheets by a floating bridge on the banks of the Yellow River, reduced to fishing from a small dinghy.
Story
They reported on some of the crucial issues facing Henan, and the broader Chinese economy: a property boom that appears to be coming to an end; a slump in consumer spending; an anti-pollution campaign that has had a crippling economic impact on many cities and towns, even as their people are breathing more easily; and the undermining of dreams of upward social mobility.
For more on this story see the series Dream deferred: Henan province and a slowing Chinese economy
People play with ice floats at a pond in the compound of an apartment complex in Zhengzhou.
Fisherman Sun Lianxi drops his net into the waters of the Yellow River.
Jiejie Li, wife of Sun Lianxi, prepares food on a wood stove in their makeshift dwelling at the Yellow River embankment.
Workers eat lunch near the construction site of apartment buildings near the new stadium in Zhengzhou.
Interior designer Zhang Chenxuan, who has run an interior design business in Zhengzhou for seven years, poses in an apartment his company is fitting out in a high-rise. Zhang's income has shrunk by 20-30 percent since last year as orders from new home buyers fell, he said. "Clients nowadays only want something practical and simple, that saves money, instead of going for the luxurious," Zhang said. "Eighty percent of my customers now complain that they are very poor, that they don't have the money for proper furnishings."
Zhao Na, 29, a real estate agent, poses for pictures in an upscale showroom apartment. "When I am flush, I am happy to part with money," said Zhao, who once splurged around 60,000 yuan ($9,000) on a clutch of handbags during a trip to Paris in 2017. "Spending makes me happy." But with China's economy slowing, Zhao's business has hit a wall and her income has plummeted, forcing her to shelve that source of happiness. "Not being able to spend money as I like makes me feel lousy, but I cannot do much about it," she said.
People leave the high speed railway station on a hazy morning in Zhengzhou.
A man waits at a bus stop at a high speed railway station in Zhengzhou.
LED lights in the pavement illuminate the square in front of a high speed railway station in the new business district of Zhengzhou.
A deliveryman leans against a cart outside a wholesale market in central Zhengzhou.
Smoke stacks and cooling towers of a power plant rise above a low-rise neighbourhood that borders a steel plant in Anyang.
Locals wait for the start of a Chinese opera performance that Xinyuan Steel put on for locals and employees to mark the end of Chinese New Year festivities in Anyang.
A worker watches a Chinese opera performance.
A retired worker watches a Chinese opera performance.
A performer of a travelling Chinese opera troupe puts on her make-up before playing a show.
Locals and retired workers leave after a Chinese opera performance.
A man walks past the vehicle repair shop of Wang Junchang which is located opposite a steel plant.
Men ride a scooter past a poster showing Chinese President Xi Jinping on the side of a school building in a newly developed part of Lankao County.
People walk on a horseshoe-shaped glass bridge over Fuxi Mountain valley outside Xinmi city.
A worker cleans a pond in a park in front of a local government building in a newly developed part of Lankao County.
A chef walks outside a restaurant at night in the old town of Luoyang.
Women buy steamed buns from a street vendor in the old town of Luoyang.
A driver of a tourist shuttle wears a hat with a red star as she poses for pictures at the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang.
