Land reclamation

The government needs a plan to address these issues, says Li Xinchuang, president of China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute.

"The government should arrange for reemployment opportunities," he tells the Global Times. Industrial wasteland should be converted for use by other industries, he suggests.

It took five years for Beijing Shougang Steel Company to complete its 2005 move to Caofeidian, Tangshan. The land Shougang left behind in Shijingshan district sits idle.

"After the move, the government cleared up the obvious pollutants and the heavily polluted soil," Gong says. "Then research and evaluation of polluted soil was performed. Right now the work hasn't been finished and the results aren't open to the public at the moment."

Talks persist over what to do about Shougang.

In September last year, the Beijing Daily reported the dead steel plant would be converted into a tourist attraction set to open in 2014.

In October, the Beijing-based Legal Mirror reported plans for a financial district, shops and entertainment center.

Today, nobody is talking about Tangshan.

"There's been partial research in Tangshan about how to remediate the wasteland," Gong says, "but there's been no full survey or evaluation of all the polluted land yet."

A gatekeeper at one of the deserted Hebei Province factories, Xinhaixin Steel Industry, says even though the factory has been shut down for about six months, the site won't be torn down or cleared for a long time.

"There are still people coming to buy the leftover steel industry equipment," he says. He doesn't know what will happen when all the equipment has been sold.

There's simply no time to think about abandoned industrial wasteland at the moment, an official from the Tangshan Environmental Bureau told Caijing magazine in July.

Most steel plants rented agricultural land from villages like Xiaotun and Shuihou. The companies exited, leaving behind poisoned land. Only the buildings remain, where buyers occasionally pick over the rusting equipment.

After Tangshan steel companies Xin'ao and Taifeng shut down before the 2008 Olympics, the government couldn't even identify all the locations of all the disused industrial wasteland, Caijing reported.

Marooned villager Li Shuyou attends to 40 sheep. He wants to expand his flock into the deserted factory.

Li listens, watches and waits for news of factory demolitions, pollution clean-ups or land reclamation.

"I think it will take many, many years," he says.