Beijing Mega-Region Plan Aims To Alleviate Poverty, But Some Are Wary
Set to be implemented in 2030, the plan would merge Beijing, the port city of Tianjin and Hebei province into a mega-region to push economic development. Some are skeptical resources will be shifted.
Ming Jun snaps some dusty twigs and drags them indoors to cook lunch for his daughter and heat his mud brick home.
The Chinese farmer is down to his last pile of firewood, and he can't afford any more. It's just ahead of the Lunar New Year, but Ming says he feels no holiday cheer.
"Other families buy their kids meat to eat and new clothes to wear. My daughter wears old, donated clothes," he says dejectedly. "Forget it, I'm not going to visit other folks' homes. I'll just stay at home and sleep."
Ming Jun's village is just three miles outside Beijing city limits, in an impoverished belt of counties to the north and
